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Of 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:

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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 Semien Mountains was spectacular and that comprised the majority of the trip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary_of_Zion

[To be continued...]

After a few days in Bahir Dar on Lake Tana I hopped a relatively short 3 hour mini bus to the early 17th Century Imperial City of Gonder. Gonder was founded as the first permanent Imperial Capitol by Emperor Fasilides in 1635, where it remained prosperous for over 200 years until it was moved in 1855 and then sacked and plundered in 1864.

After two nights in bustling and freezing cold Addis Ababa (60 degrees was the high with lots of rain) I hopped an over-priced, 10 hour mini bus for Bahir Dar (a grueling 10 hour trip) on Lake Tana, which is the (murky) source of the Blue Nile (one of two Nile arteries that later join). Lake Tana is famous for the ancient monasteries that are scattered on islands and a peninsula in the lake and one in particular that is alleged to have housed the famous Lost Ark of the Covenant for 40 years before allegedly being moved to a church in Aksum, Ethiopia.

After surviving the horrible Kenyan death-roads (likely the worst roads in the world) and 2 days of buses from Kigali, Rwanda through Kampala, Uganda, I ended up in shady Nairobi, Kenya (affectionately known as Nai-robbery by locals although thankfully I had no problems). After one full day and 2 nights there I hopped another long distance bus for Mombasa, on the South Coast of Kenya. The Swahili culture is one evolved over many generations of intermarrying between Arab, Indian and African traders along the coast of Africa from the South end of Somalia through Kenya, Tanzania and into Northern Mozambique and extending only about 10 miles inland along the coast and throughout the islands (Zanzibar and Lamu being the most prominent isles). Although ethnically the culture is centered along this coastal regions both Kenya and Tanzania have adopted Swahili as their official language (although with slightly different variations).

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).

While spending a day organizing my safari travel in Arusha I found myself with a few hours to kill and headed for the Arusha International Conference Center where I found there was a massive 8th annual Sullivan convention (Sullivan was a US Southern Baptist minister who brought together influential African Americans with influential African political and business leaders from a round the world), as well as the Rwandan Genocide Tribunals, which have been under way since the mid 90s and more rapidly since Uganda and DR Congo stabilized and stopped being a haven for Rwandan war criminals.

After exchanging my passport for a security badge I entered the court gallery and the court came to order a short while later for the afternoon session. Immediately one of the Western defense attorneys went to refute a point while questioning the defendant (one of the provincial Rwandan ministers) and started to submit references from established documentation evidence of one of the main massacres where 20,000 Tutsi victims were massacred in a church in a single day in this ministers province. While I had read about the atrocities of the genocide a few times they became crystal clear for me in that gallery as I became a part of the history of the genocide and I started trembling with the enormity of that realization. The trail continued for a few hours and I listened in on the headset which provided the translation for the Rwandan testimony (the rest of the trial was in English). The experience was humbling and heavy but at the same time fascinating and I felt it was one of the most important events that I have ever pushed myself to experience.

After 2 full days of travel (3 mini buses, 1 taxi, 1 half bus and 1 eleven-hour long distance bus) I made it from Nkhata Bay, Milawi to Dar Es Salaam on the Tanzania Coast. On the ‘luxury’ long distance bus (no isle seating and with a bathroom) to Dar I reacquainted myself with a lovely Australian couple who I had met the first night in Nkhata bay the week before. Arriving at night in one of the more sketchy cities of Africa we quickly hopped into a cab to be taken to a hostel. The next morning after breakfast I said goodbye (they were off to Ethiopia) and walked to the bank on my way to the wharf where I boarded the fast ferry for Zanzibar (for the exorbitant rate of $35 for the 90 minute trip). In Zanzibar I managed to extricate myself from the hounding taxi touts and walked with all my bags (about 70 lbs or 31 kg).

[June 13 update: To be continued in the next 24 hours with info on Stonetown and Mungwi beach and the long-term power outage.]