It was a smaller plane, 2 seats on each side of the aisle; I think it said it held 75 passengers? The flight was short and we made it easily to Bahir Dar. Some of the passengers were continuing to Lalibela, so it didn't take long to collect our luggage. The Bahir Dar airport was very modest but it did the job!
[photo - Thomas on plane; luggage carosal]
At the airport, I was looking for someone to be holding a sign with our name, but we didn't see anyone. There was, however, someone from our hotel, so we assumed we were supposed to go with him. The van from the hotel was the nicest we have been on since arriving in Ethiopia; not only did it have seatbelts, but headrests, cupholders and shoulder belts! I thought perhaps this bode well for the hotel, which did not have favorable reviews online.
I was wrong. The van was the nicest thing about the hotel! The hotel was probably gorgeous when it was new... Too bad that was probably 50 years ago! Our room was large, and there was a double bed and two twin beds... But that is the only favorable thing I can say about it. If we had been scheduled to sleep there for more than one night, I absolutely would have called our tour operator and had him move us somewhere else. But as we had a busy day ahead of us, and were only spending the one night, we decided we could handle it. Barely. I'm still not convinced we escaped without bedbugs or something similar. lol. It was pretty "special".
When we arrived at the hotel, I called Werku, our guide. He said he was on the way, and indeed, he arrived before we were even done packing the raincoats into the backpack. He introduced us to the driver, Asenakeaw. They will be with us for the first 3 days of our trip. We left the hotel and drove through Bahir Dar to the dock, where we boarded a boat across Lake Tana. The boat ride was long, but Werku entertained us with lots of stories about Ethiopia, and little tidbits of history. He played with the kids and pointed out things of interest along the way. Faith and Thomas had a little squabble over who got to sit on Dave's lap at one point, and I could tell they were tired. We finally made it to the peninsula where the church was.
We got off the boat and headed up the mountain. It was muddy and slippery, and keeping our shoes clean quickly became a hopeless cause. As we walked, there were many children with small "booths" along the path. "Please have a look at my shop. Good prices." Repeat, repeat, repeat. We are not huge trinket buyers and it was sort of annoying to not be able to enjoy the hike in peace and quiet (not to mention, the path was rough and slippery at times and required my full concentration not to end up tumbling down the hill!). We made it to the top, and visited the church. Such amazing history! It was a round church, with three concentric circles. The outer ring for services, the middle for communion, and the holy of holies in the centre. The walls of the church were covered with artwork, depicting bible stories and the life of Mary and the Apostles. It was fascinating to consider how that artwork ensured that a non-literate population was able to gain familiarity with the basics of the faith.
Ura Kidane Mehret church dates from the 16th century |
I liked the pictures of Mary nursing Jesus... To think there are Christians who think breastfeeding without a cover is "immodest"! If it's good enough for Jesus... ;)
When we were done looking around up top, we began the descent down the mountain. It was still very slippery and muddy, and of course the children were peddling their wares. It's tough, I don't really blame them for trying to earn a living, but it is just so wearisome. We did buy some coffee, and a cross, which we will use as a Christmas tree ornament (I usually buy something to put on the tree whenever we take a trip). We were about half way down, when we heard monkeys! I saw 2 or 3 run past, but Faith and Thomas missed them!
When we got down to the boat, there were young men offering to wash our shoes. Dave started to say no, but I asked how much. They only wanted $10 birr per person (about 50 cents). Yes please! So they scrubbed our shoes and got them more or less back to wearable condition. I didn't have any 10 birr notes, so I gave a 50 and told them to divide it. They began talking excitedly among themselves, and I thought maybe this was a problem, but our guide said they were just so excited by the extra 10 birr! It sure put things into perspective...
After that, we began the boat ride home. The guide had bought a bag of lemons to bring back for a friend, and he gave the kids each one. They had great fun sniffing, tasting, and ultimately eating the lemons!
The boat took us to where Lake Tana meets the Nile River. We can now say we have been on the Nile! Apparently there are hippos in that area, but we didn't see any! This woman was steering her boat with a baby on her back!
The boat took us to a very cool restaurant for lunch, and that is where we said goodbye to the "Captain". Werku got us set up at the restaurant, and then disappeared while we ate. I think maybe he is also fasting, but doesn't want us to know? :) When we were almost done, he came back, and entertained Thomas while Faith finished eating. Werku is going to have to adjust how long he leaves us to eat compared to other families, as Faith, though doing better than she was this summer, still takes a VERY long time to eat!
The driver met us at the restaurant, and we proceeded with the rest of our day... A trip to the Blue Nile waterfalls...
2 comments:
Hi Heather,
so glad you are having a great time. Your kids are amazingly adaptable! Amazing! I am so interested in a similar trip. I am wondering how you went about booking this trip? Did you do it from Canada? With an agency or through a referral? Any info you could provide would be fantastic!
Hi Annie!
Sorry for just getting back to this now. We did use a tour company, based out of Gonder, that was recommended to us by friends of my grandparents. www.exploreabyssinia.com <-- this is the company we booked with. Our only complaint the whole trip was the hotel we stayed in the first night, and we have spoken with the owner (Seyoum) and he apologized profusely and said he will not book other guests there (the hotel he usually uses in Bahir Dar was booked). The guides that he arranged were fantastic, the flights were all taken care of, etc.
Could we have done it on our own? Probably. You can book the "flight loop" directly with Ethiopian Airlines, and pretty much every hotel offers free airport pick up. As well, each hotel would gladly arrange a tour guide for that particular city.
The advantage of booking with the tour company was it was ONE plan... We set it up entirely by email, and he did everything. I didn't have to book hotels, pay admissions everywhere, etc. We basically paid one price for everything except tips, lunch, and supper (breakfast was included).
For us, traveling with kids, and on very short notice, the tour company was money well spent. I highly recommend Seyoum with Abyssinia Travel, and our guide Werku in particular!
Let me know if you have any questions!
Heather
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