Saturday, December 5th - Bahir Dar to Gondar, Ethiopia

it rained last night so this morning was very cool and fresh indeed.  I started out with capris on but changed to long pants and grabbed my all-weather jacket as I wasn't sure what the weather was going to be for the rest of the day.  Then I went down to breakfast on the patio, where it was indeed a bit cool in the breeze.

We were packed, checked out and down in the lobby by 9 a.m. waiting for our pickup.  About 9:50 Dereje phoned to say the van would be there in 10 minutes.  It was indeed there in 10 minutes and it was not a special mini van going to meet a tour that started in Gondar.  It was just a local bus with mattresses, grain and luggage piled high on top. We got the last two seats but since he had said we could have the seat right behind the driver that's what we got.  However, that was no great advantage.  There was literally no leg room as they have the rows of seats crammed as close together as possible, and someone had stored two very long boxes under our seat and into the place where our feet should go.  I spent the whole trip with my feet up on the back of the seat base of those in the front and it was a really tight squeeze.  My left knee did not like being in such a bent position for so long and my right leg was starting to cramp.  I think I had it better than Randy though.  He probably only got one cheek on the seat and had to sit slightly sideways with one foot in the door well.  

The bus was crowded but we stopped and picked up more people and more cargo along the way.  And the guy who normally hangs out the window shouting the destination to those on the road side, didn't have to do any shouting at all.  He did have to say or motion no room several times though so many along the route had to wait for the next vehicle.  And he knew exactly where everyone and everything was going.  He would simply reach out the window and pound the side of the vehicle and the driver would pull over.  Sometimes we were just meeting someone at the roadside to deliver the cargo that had been sent and he always seemed to know who he was meeting and where.  It was actually quite interesting to see and I now have more respect for the guys who hang out the window.  However, I still would have preferred the trip in a private van.  

Regardless of the cramped and hot environment in the bus, the scenery outside the bus was beautiful.  We followed the shore of Lake Tana for a while and sometimes we were in rolling hills, sometimes very flat land as far as you could see, and sometimes we were going through mountain passes.  At least I think they might have been mountains but I'm not really sure how high they were or how high a range has to be to be called a mountain.  All I know is that the views were stunning.  I was sitting in the middle and, while Randy is used to my picture taking,  I'm sure the lady to my right probably wondered why I was reaching in front of her so many times.  But then again she always seemed to look at the camera right after to see how the shot came out and she even point out one specific picture spot for me so I guess she was okay with it.  

It would have been nice to have talked to some of them, especially the person I was squished in beside, but they all pretended to know no English.  I'm quite sure that wasn't true as they were mainly young people in College or University and all of the teaching is in English.  However, I'm also sure that Dereje and the driver and shouter guy had explained the situation to everyone on the bus and told them not to let on what the real price was.  When I asked she said something in Amharic and they all burst out laughing so I imagine they were all in on it.  Hopefully the three girls also got a share of our overpayment too because they were likely the only ones who had to change seats or be split up.  

Okay, enough about the bus ride and the rip off.  There really are better things to talk about, like the scenery which I started to talk about above.  There were really lush fields of crops.  We though one was sorghum but we weren't sure.  Then there was something that was a darker brown stalk and we wondered if that was tef, their local grain.  There were lots of green onions and some potatoes, peppers, carrots, etc. and there seemed to be some smaller fields with banks around them that we thought might be rice.  The yellow and brown grains and the green crops mixed with the soil and the trees and hills and made beautiful pictures.  I just hope some of mine turned out well enough to do them justice.  

Another amazing thing was that almost every river or stream that we crossed had water in it.  Some had only a little bit of water but others had a lot.  And wherever there was water there was activity: people doing laundry and then hanging the clothes on bushes to dry - very colourful on its own, people swimming, people getting water, people washing vehicles, people letting their animals drink the water, etc.  (I won't bother to even comment on the animals and the people drinking the same water!)  Unfortunately most of the bridges have railings so it was hard to get pictures that did the scenes justice.  There were a few dry areas in the last stretch but basically it seems like a very fertile area and this is their dry season.  I can't even imagine the vegetation in the rainy season.

As we arrived in Gondar more people started getting off the bus.  That generally meant that someone (generally the shouter) had to climb up on the roof and untie things until he got to the piece(s) he wanted and then he would throw them down to whomever was waiting.  At one corner the door opened and this nice young man asked if we were the people going to the L Shape Hotel (yes, that's the name of it and I don't even think it's in the shape of an L).  We said yes and he said he had come to meet us.  He was the one who grabbed our bags from the shouter when he untied them.  And he didn't ask which ones were ours either.  He just knew despite the fact that there were a lot of bags up there.  As I mentioned before, I definitely have a lot more respect for these guys now.  They really do know their stuff.

We walked to our hotel which was only about three blocks away but it seemed like quite a distance to me because my left knee just dd not want to move after sitting in the one cramped position for so long (3 hours in case I haven't already said so).  The hotel doesn't look like a hotel at all from the front street level.  There are three or four tables and chairs at sidewalk level and then a door that leads into a bar and restaurant.  The reception area is through a door and up a flight of stairs.  Once there, although they were eager to have us, I had to stop them and say we had to check with Jovago first.  

We had originally booked another hotel and paid for the two nights on Jovago.  The next day we had an e-mail from Solomon at Jovago saying they couldn't get that hotel so how about XXX  I said that XXX appeared to be ind Bahir Dar and we needed something in Gondar.  By the time they got back with a suggestion for a different hotel (the L) our internet had already stopped working at the hotel so we didn't get the message until late.  We replied and said yes to the L or alternatively the YYY but hadn't heard anything from them before we left in the morning.  Now I was at the L and had to get online to see if they had confirmed the L as the substitute hotel but alas, their internet was down.   The L had no reservation for us but, because their e-mail had been down all day, they didn't know if a confirmation from Jovago had arrived.  I tried our phone hotspot but it didn't seem to work for e-mail either.  So I decided to text the guy at Jovago and after several tries discovered that I was out of airtime.  One of the guys from the L went and bought us some airtime which we loaded.  Then we sent a text message  and waited for a response.  Our original e-mail said, "We are in Gondar.  Is anything booked for us?"  The reply back was "yes it is confirmed" which really wasn't all that helpful under the circumstances.  I sent another text message, "Which hotel and for how much and has it already been paid?"  We waited for at least a half hour but received no response.  Eventually I called the number on the confirmation e-mail and talked to someone different who said Soloman would call me shortly.  I said Soloman didn't have my number but they said he did (not sure how).  Shortly thereafter the hotel got a call and said Solomon wanted to talk to me.  He apologized and gave me a few excuses and then said the L was booked for two rooms for two nights and Jovago would look after the cost difference, which was very nice of them and not really expected.  He told the same to the hotel and finally, about an hour later, we were finally showed to our rooms.

While we were sitting outside the reception area trying to e-mail, text and phone these people, there were many tourist going by.  I don't think I've seen so many white people all the time I've been in Ethiopia so this is definitely a tourist hotel.  And they all seemed to be happy so I guess that's a good sign.  One of the guests is Susanne from Toronto so we spent some time talking to her.  After we finally got our rooms we went downstairs to grab some lunch and she came along again and joined us.  We ended us sharing two small pizzas and still couldn't finish them.  She is travelling on her own so was glad to have someone to hang around with for a while.  She had some amazing stories about how she had been tricked by the locals as well so we spent a fair amount of time talking about tourism in Ethiopia and the lack of rules and regulations and control over the tourist areas.   Then we decided to take a tuk-tuk up to the Debra Bechem Selassie Church and wondered how much the driver would rip us off.

Before leaving the hotel she checked on what the approximate costs should be and they told her 15 birr and gave her directions to the best place to catch one to that church.  We walked about four blocks and found one easily.  He wanted 50 birr but we settled on 30  birr since there were three of us.  On the way back down the guy wanted 40 but we said it was only 30 on the way up so he accepted that and didn't argue, which probably proves the real rate was 15 and he was still getting twice what he would normally.  

The church was very interesting and well worth a visit.  It is situated in a fortification t the top of a hill.  The fortification walls re made of stone and mortar and they are very sturdy.  I believe they were built in the 18th century and they are still intact today as far as I could tell.   There are twelve rounded towers along the wall and they represent the twelve disciples.  Each tower has only a few small windows at the top.  There is a large double arched entry gate with two stories and a dome above the gate.  The walls here are probably eight feet thick.   The church itself is also of stone.  It has eleven or twelve square pillars down each side and four at the front and back and from certain angles it almost looks like the acropolis in Greece (I hope that's the right building!).  The roof is thatched and overhangs the pillars slightly.  There is a walkway between the pillars and the actual church wall.  Some of it is for prayer and some pictures are positioned on the exterior church wall. There are high windows below the main roof and then a raised attic type area, also with windows, which is probably for ventilation.

The church itself is again made of stone and has two high arched entrances at the front and a couple of side entrances as well.  The windows are also arched and in all cases it is simply stone work that forms the arch.  The stone on the interior is covered in straw and mud to make the surface smoother and there are paintings on the walls.  These are said to be the originals but also to be the work of a certain artist but since he wasn't born until the following century it's hard to know which part of the story is true.  There re two arched doors at the front and they have angel faces all over them.  Above them and around them there are paintings, and down both side walls are more paintings.  The ceiling is made of heavy wood beams and they are all painted with angel faces and wings as well.  It always seems to be the same angel but looking in different directions so I'm not sure of the significance.  The paintings are Biblical scenes but I certainly couldn't identify all of them.  

There were a few ruins in the church yard and a few of the archways were still standing.  Even just as a stone archway on their own they look quite impressive.so I'm sure it was a very impressive centre in its day.  There is another building or perhaps it is three separate buildings in the corner of the complex and they are surrounded by scaffolding and a higher tin roof.  I assume this is to preserve the older building below, and perhaps they are doing restoration work there.  We assumed this was probably the living quarters for those in the compound.  The buidlings are stone too and the interesting thing about them is that they have curved roofs and over half of the front of the building has stone that is curving in above the entrance door instead of laying straight in a normal wall.  It is quite impressive to see how the bricks all fit together.  And looking at my pictures just now I realized there is another stone wall all around the fortification wall.  The entrance where we came in was an iron gate through this wall.  I'm assuming it is more recent than the fortification wall and the church but it looks remarkably the same.

The tuk-tuk dropped us at the same spot where we started out which was outside a big bank so we decided to get some cash.  Randy's card would not work so I went into the bank to see if I could get some there.  The gentleman at the front said the ATM should do it so go try again.  I tried it and it worked fine so at least one of us has some money.  This morning he had money and I didn't.  Tonight I have some and he doesn't. 

We walked back to the hotel and I went to my room at that point as my stomach has been bothering me all day and I knew I'd feel more comfortable in my room near a bathroom.  The other two went off to tour more of the city.  They returned a couple hours later and went down to dinner.  I decided to skip dinner and Randy was going to pick something up for me.  Their left over buns from dinner and some water did the trick and that was it for me for the night.  I was tired and hoped I'd get a good sleep and feel better in the morning.  However, between the bar/pub/disco? down the street that played really loud music until the wee hours of the morning, the dogs that were barking and fighting continually, and the very loud church service that started at 5 a.m. over loud speakers and went continually after that, the sleep was not quite as restful as hoped.