A Runner's Ramblings

At some point in Lalibela the idea of building churches up from the ground stopped making sense and instead, it was decided that they should be carved out of solid rock. There are 11 churches (depending on how you count) that were carved and dug out of the ground. The one above is the Church of St George. Like most, it’s three stories tall and all made in one piece of rock. Although they were impressive from inside, their true grandeur was most visible from outside. According to legend all eleven were built in 23 years, but it seems likely that it took longer.

The churches were the main (only) reason we visited, but the caves and tunnels that were made to connect some of the churches were just as cool. As we left one church, our fifth of the day, we were looking for something a little different. Dom noticed a dark passageway and asked where it went. “To the next church… but wouldn’t you rather go up and around?” Really??? No! So our guide led us through, turning on his cell phone flash light only near the halfway point. When we got to the far end, there was a gate… which was locked from the outside. Oops. Luckily a guard heard us knock and other than look at us like we were weird, had no issues letting us out.

All the churches had artifacts on display and monks who were, to varying degrees, interested in sharing and showing them off. We learned that there are ONLY three types of crosses in Ethiopia: Gondar (above left), Axumite (above right) and Lalibela. The Lalibela reminded me of a dancing Shiva with a circle with seven points around the outside. At the next church, we learned that there were ONLY six types of crosses in Ethiopia. This monk also included hand-held crosses, necklace crosses and staff crosses. The mathematician in me wanted to ask about the possible permutations like hand-held Axumite and staff Gondar, but decided it would probably get lost in translation.

Having not terrified us on the last cave/tunnel, our guide offered us a choice for the path to the last church. We could the “Heavenly Route” by going up and around which would give wonderful views of the city and surrounding valley. Or we could descend into “Hell” and take the unlit 50m (~165ft) tunnel. We opted for the tunnel. “It will be good practice,” our guide told us… jokingly, I think.

Christmas day consisted of an 8km (5 mile) hike up the mountain on the edge of town, a 42km drive on rough roads and dinner in an architectural experiment. It started at 7am to beat the heat. Over those 8km, we gained more than 1000m of elevation, and we didn’t start low. The monastery we were going to was around 3400m above sea level. The view from the top was better than the monastery we came to see, but it was still worthwhile. We each rode a mule part of the way. Dom got to ride, I was told I should ride “for the experience”. We didn’t even remember it was Christmas until half way through the hike since Ethiopia is on a different calendar and doesn’t celebrate until Jan 7.

After the hike and a quick lunch, we climbed into an old land rover for an hour long ride over some of the roughest road I’ve been on. The giant earth-moving machines had to pause their work to let us by on our way to one final church. This one was in a cave and was built up rather than carved out. There were intricately carved wooden ceilings and doors that made this one our favorite of the churches in Lalibela.

When we returned, it was almost time for Christmas Dinner and although we couldn’t find any place that made tacos, we decided to treat ourselves. We went to Ben Abeba, the best Scottish-Ethiopian restaurant in Lalibela. It’s run by a wonderful and vibrant expat living there in a state of semi-retirement. She wanted to celebrate with others on Dec 25, rather than waiting so threw a party. It was wonderful. We arrived and meet two couples, one from Denmark, the other from the UK. One person was working in Addis, one in Gondar and each had someone visiting. Later we were joined by a brother and sister from Australia. When dinner started, all the tables were arranged for couples. We didn’t want to stop socializing so we pulled three tables together and completed confused the wait staff. It was a fabulous way to spend Christmas: good food, new friends and a wonderful host.

This morning we flew to Axum, the ancient political and religious capital. The main draw to the town these days are the stelae (granite obelisks) dating from around 400 CE. The tallest currently standing is 25 meters tall and weighs 170 tons. A taller one (33 m) is in several pieces on the ground beside it. Although local legend says it stood before being knocked over by Queen Yodit during a raid, it’s more likely that it fell when they tried to raise it.

After the stelae fields, it was time for lunch and, by wonderful coincidence, a bike race in town. Details were a bit sparse, even many of the locals seemed surprised by the race, but from what we could gather, it was a criterium style race as part of the final day of a five day tour. When we arrived, the category 3 racers were going, but by the time we finished lunch, the pros in category 1 were starting. The race went back and forth on the main road through town. Many locals watched and cheered despite few having any idea what was happening. Several encouraged me to jump into the race assuming it would be hysterical to watch a “faranji” ride with pros. Instead I watched while drinking an avocado juice.

Later we toured the tombs of early Christian kings (circa 600 CE) and the palace of the Queen of Sheba (circa 1000 BCE).

The most important history lesson of the day didn’t come from our guide or the museum, but from our driver. One day a dog, a goat and a donkey went to town on the bus. The donkey got on and paid with exact change. The dog paid too much but the driver didn’t have change. The goat said he would pay when he got off, but ran out the door at his stop without paying. The animals remember that to this day which is why when a car drives down the road, the goat runs away, the donkey ignores it and the dog chases it, still looking for his change.

On our second day in Bahir Dar, we visited three monasteries on Lake Tana built between 900 and 1300 CE. Each was on a separate island. It was about an hour boat ride to the first and although they didn’t look like much from the outside, it was decorated with stunning paintings depicting the life of Christ inside. The first was the most spectacular but all were nice.

Between the second and third monasteries, we took the boat to the outflow for the Blue Nile to look for hippos. We were told it’s rare to see them, so I was focusing on the papyrus kayak loaded down with reeds when Dominique spotted the first one.

We stayed for several minutes watching them poke their heads out of the water. The massive creatures seemed almost as interested in us as we were in them.

At the dock for the third island, a 14 year-old boy had just returned from school on his kayak (his friend was having fun hand paddling the Styrofoam case an outboard was shipped in). We talked with him and he agreed to let me try his boat. It was far more stable than I expected but was not very hydrodynamic. I was able to paddle faster than the boy on the large piece of Styrofoam, but only just.

Later, we explored the large market in town. It was fascinating to see the variety of goods being made there. An entire aisle was devoted to making new things out of old tires including shoes, ropes and water bladders. Another area was occupied by metalsmiths making oil lamps from used cans and then there were the spices… amazingly colorful and fragrant. Finally there were several stalls with TVs connected to PlayStation 2s. Anyone can rent time on them for play, but mostly it’s teenage boys betting on who can win FIFA World Cup.

Yesterday we left Bahir Dar for the three hour drive to Gondar. It was a pleasant drive through the countryside passing many farms and villages. We stopped once to see a pillar of rock (and teach the local kids how to make straw horns). There were groups of people along the whole route threshing a variety of grains from rice to barley to teff, some by hand, others with help from cattle.

The first stop in Gondar was Gondar Castle. This is actually a collection of seven castles built in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by a series of kings and princesses. They were later used by the Italians as headquarters during their occupation in the 1930’s. King Fasiledes built the first of the castles to establish a permanent capital. He also built a large baptismal pool used for the annual celebration of Jesus’s baptism. This was the second stop. It is still used every Jan 19th as part of the festival Timkat.

We took a detour to a new science center before visiting Debre Birhan Selassie Church, the only one of 44 ancient churches to survive the Sudanese attacks. Like the monasteries on Lake Tana, it was covered in paintings depicting the life of Christ.

Today we went to Simian Mountains National Park. Unfortunately, the haze obstructed some of the views, but the highlight was the Gelada baboons. They didn’t seem to notice or care that we were there. We got within ten feet of them and they kept eating grass. We could have watched the little ones play for hours.

On the way back to Gondar, we stopped at a village known for its pottery and got an Ethiopian coffee pot. With straws burning a hole in my pocket, we made horns. First with the kids, then some of the mothers joined in as well.

Blue Nile Falls

Yesterday we wandered around Addis for two hours. It was just long enough to get coffee at a cool little shop, visit St George’s cathedral and nearly get lost in the alleys and back streets. The first stop was looking for breakfast. Since must places have options for locals fasting (no meat, dairy or egg) for Christmas, it wasn’t hard to find vegan options. The place we went only had standing tables so we edged in next to business men grabbing an espresso on the way to work.

After finishing our coffee, we walked up to St George’s. Walking through the gate in the wall surrounding the cathedral, the atmosphere changed instantly. The frenetic feel of life and commerce on the street dropped away. There were just as many people inside the wall as outside, but most were quietly introspective.

After making a complete loop of the church, we left through a different gate and assumed our innate sense of direction would get us back to the hotel in time to catch our flight… It’s always an adventure wandering around an unfamiliar city with a destination in mind and no plan for how to get there. After 25 minutes, I was starting to think we should turn around and retrace our steps. Then, as if we had planned it, we arrived right where we expected to. It’s so satisfying when that happens.

We checked out of the hotel, got a cab to the airport and flew to Bahir Dar.

We (Dominique) had arranged for a guide to meet us at the airport and show us around the cultural sites of Northern Ethiopia. Yalew met us outside baggage claim, got us to the hotel, got lunch then began the hour long drive over very rocky roads to Blue Nile Falls. The Blue Nile is one of two main tributaries of the Nile river. About 15 miles from the headwaters in Lake Tana, the river pours over a massive falls, 50-75′ high and a quarter mile wide. Or it did until they built the hydro electric plant. Now there are three small falls, each narrow enough that you could probably jump across. The hike out to see them was nice but the sight of small falls that were one so massive they were referred to as smoking water, was disappointing.

The villages on the way back from the falls seemed surprisingly incongruent. Each village had at least one pool table in a mud hut with teenage boys hanging around. The homes were made of sticks and mud with corrugated metal roofs, but several had mini satellite dishes. The preferred method of transporting good to market seemed to be donkey carts. The drivers often wore very old shoes, just barely holding together and a towel over their head to keep out of the sun. But under many of the towels, the drivers had their cell phones out and were texting each other. There is a noticeable (and expected) lack of resources in the villages, but the people remain joyous and full of life.

Still getting used to the new time zone, we were nearly asleep by 8:00, so we turned in early. This morning I got up for a quick run. I did a little over 3 miles and never have I had such encouragement from passersby. A few positive words in English and many hands in the air cheering. Everyone one seemed to think running was ask odd thing to do, but they seemed to expect odd things from tourists.

We’re now on a boat on Lake Tana. Today we will visit three monasteries on islands in the lake before returning to visit the market in Bahir Dar. It should be a good day. Oh, and we just passed three kayakers in boats they made out of papyrus. I’ll have to see if they’ll let me try one later.

We made it. The 25+ hours of travel are behind us and we’re in Addis. Before leaving the airport it was obvious we were someplace different. When the power went out for 10 seconds while we were clearing customs, no one seemed to notice. Likewise, little attention was paid to the large Samsonite tumbling down the escalator. It turns out that if you put your suitcase down next to you and the ground drops away, it rolls down hill.

Well, now it’s time for lunch, then a nap and we’re off to explore the market.

Bags are packed. Pets are taken care of. Water heater is set to vacation. We’re at the airport and checked in. The trip is about to start…

Now for the few quick flights. First to LA, then DC, then non-stop to Addis Ababa. It’s Sunday night and we arrive Tuesday morning. We’re hoping to get plenty of sleep on the flights and looking forward to a great trip that is starting to feel very real. Exciting!

We’re headed to Africa in a week and several people have asked how they can follow along. While there, we’ll have only limited access to the internet, but I will try keep this updated as often as possible.

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