Lalibela, Ethiopia
July 25th, 2008Of the 100 or so archeological sites in the world, Lalibela ranks easily in the top 6 or 8 as most spectacular. Many of the 12th and 13th Century rock-hewn churches are monolithic, meaning that they are freed entirely out of a single surface of rock. The most impressive by far is Bete Giyorges, which was the final church to be built by King Lalibela.
The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela:
Due to the poor transportation network in Ethiopia I was forced to fly so as to avoid the 3 day bus journey (only about 160 Km/92 Mi.). Fortunately this gave me extra time to spend in Lalibela which I ended up needing due to nearly 2 full days of constant rain. With 2 other fully days I had ample time to see all of the 11 rock-hewn churches in town, although I never made it out to the farther monasteries due to the high cost associated with private tours and not enough tourists to do them with.
[To be continued...]

St. Mary of Zion is where many believe the Ark of the Covenant currently rests but which access is prohibited by all except one lone monk and it remains perpetually un-verifiable.” border=”0″ />To save myself a stopover in some dinky town and an extra morning of travel I traveled to Aksum by private Land Rover with a group of Dutch Med Students I had met in Gonder. The trip was long, cramped, expensive ($300 total is a ton in Africa even with 10 hours of fuel) but the scenery in the
Of all the local food between South Africa and Ethiopia I have found
Even though the food is good I found it hard to digest Injera more than once a day so would have the other of my 2 Ethiopian meals of the day with bread. Normally I am not a big breakfast fan but I found bread was an especially fine companion for my favorite Ethiopian breakfast (or for me often lunch) food that was sometimes called Ukilasis (sp?) and sometimes just [Scrambled] Eggs with [Beri-Beri] Sauce. I actually make eggs somewhat the same way by scrambling salsa with the raw eggs before cooking and I found this version even more tasty so I had to buy some of this delicious spice to recreate the simple but delicious dish upon my return. 
After a short 2-hour mini bus ride from the border on very nice new roads we made it to the charming Rwandan capitol of Kigali, set among the hills of Rwanda. I found the countryside and landscape of Rwanda to be as beautiful as southern Uganda and among the nicest landscapes in all the countries I have visited in Africa. After a local showed us the way we found rooms in a guest house, down a steep hill from the city center. Kigali is very modern and clean by African standards, a testament to the massive influx of International aid and assistance that has flowed into Rwanda the past 14 years since the horrible atrocities of the Rwandan genocide. While people still stared at us and street touts tried to sell us trinkets and phone cards the level of hassle was extremely lessened from the rest of Africa (and not even on the same scale as Egypt and Tanzania). 