"Mule"-tide Greetings from Ethiopia

Christmas mule ride....
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Ethiopia is a country that doesn't like to conform. It is the only African country that wasn't colonized, it works on a 13 month calendar, it uses its own timezone, western music is rarely heard, and its culinary cuisine isn't like any other in the region (and it's delicious!).

After a couple of very necessary rest days in Addis Ababa we started making our way around the northern historical circuit of Ethiopia. During yet another bumpy bus ride we were pleasantly surprised by Ethiopia’s beautiful countryside, some of which is not unlike what you might see in the Grand Canyon. As well as beautiful rocky escarpments we passed cultivated fields of Tef (the grain used to make Ethiopia’s spongy flat pancake-like bread - Injera).

The three people surrounding Matt's seat all blew chunks during the trip

Ethiopian bus station.
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Our first stop was in the lakeside town of Bahir Dar. Bahir Dar, like most Ethiopian cities, was filled with children playing table tennis and foosball on the sidewalks. We took a boat around Lake Tana visiting the many islands that dot the lake which house 17^th century Orthodox Christian monasteries along with their cross wielding priests who appear out of nowhere to open the churches. The only thing more intriguing than the elaborate (and often very graphic) paintings that covered the church walls was the armed monastery guard who donned a ridiculous purple toque.

King Fasilidas' Castle - Gonder.
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From Lake Tana we travelled to Gonder, which is known as “Ethiopia’s Camelot.” Needless to say we were a little skeptical at this claim however once again Ethiopia surprised us with six wonderfully preserved castles from the 17^th century. A couple days roaming around Gonder and a quick stop in the Simien Mountains and we were off to Lalibela.

Lalibela is Ethiopia’s main tourist draw as it is home to a number of rock hewn churches that were built during the 12^th centuries in efforts to hide from Islamic armies. It was Indiana Jones-esque climbing through tunnels and along passageways carved out of the rock in order to get from one Church to the next as they were built from the top down (some being close to four stories tall). A place of pilgrimages, worshippers, and tourists this ultra-Christian town seemed like the perfect place to spend Christmas. Unfortunately for us with Ethiopia being Orthodox Christian, December 25^th was about two weeks early for the Christmas festival (Jan 7^th). So instead of seeing a wonderful celebration we spent the day riding around town on mules much like the three wisemen would have done. It was actually a lot of fun. Lalibela left us with a lot of great memories however one memory we would like to forget is the discomfort of 50+ flea bites we received by the fleas that inhabit the rugs of the churches.

Beautiful baboon....
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The bus ride back was disgusting. The twists and turns around the cliffs were too much for many of the Ethiopians on the bus and three people surrounding Matt's seat all blew chunks during the trip. It was awful, at one point the window above Alisa's head was thrown open and she had to duck as a full bag of barf was flung out the window.

At this point we concluded our visit to Sub-Saharan Africa, climbed on an airplane to Muscat, Oman (in the middle East) and will rest for a couple weeks with Joel (Matt’s brother) and Tina at their house. We can’t believe we have got this far into our trip already and as you probably have realized (from reading earlier blogs) that we have been pleasantly surprised by the exceptional hospitality of this part of the World. For all those betting against Alisa making it one month on this trip, she is already looking forward to the second half.