Saturday, August 28, 2010

Travel Day 8-9--Gondar to Lalibela and a Day in Lalibela (aka July 22-23)

Travel Day 8 started out with feeling sligtly better than the day before. This is when the upper respiratory symptoms started to set in for me (sore throat, cough). I also insisted Tony and I start the Cipro today.  We still both hada bit of a stomach thing going this morning too.  We had a great breakfast--I couldn't eat it, but it was good. Mangos are quite proliferative in this region so fresh squeezed mango juice quickly became a favorite of Sarah's...We'll forever remember Sarah's catchy tune every meal after that while we were waiting for her order of mango....
I want my MANGO juice....
I Want my mango juice.....
I want MY mango juice...
I WANT IT NOW....

The trip from Gondar to Lalibela also brought us in contact with a squat toilet.  If you want more information about this....feel free to google it.  Find the worst example you can...insert that picture in your brain.  The girls were smart  yet unaffected with the upset stomach portion of this illness so they refused chose not to go near the thing.  Tony and I had no choice.  I had to visit 2 separate ones on 2 separate occassions.  Fortunately our tummy woes were not long lived.

We arrived at the Mountain View Hotel after a several hour drive from Gondar. The landscape was amazing and we saw many small villages along the way.  We also spent about 2 hours on a VERY bumpy rocky road that did lots of twisting and winding in order to get to Lalibela.  The scenery was worth it though.  Also, this was probablly the nicest hotel we stayed at throughout our journey.  If we go back, we'll definitely stay here agian. The restaurant was phenomenal as well.  Here are some views...

a Gelada babboon we saw on our way to Lalibela

A typical village we saw as we were nearing Lalibela

up close picture of a completed dwelling (right) and an in process dwelling (left)

The view from our hotel...Yes, really.  There was a tunderstorm moving in.

We pretty much just hung out on the hotel on Thursday afternoon.  We all took naps, played cards. I started getting a lot sicker here, fever, chills, body aches and the upper respiratory thing was really taking off. The girls and Tony had dinner in the restaurant and I rested. They did bring me some great bread and a coke though :) 
The next morning, I was thinking I officially had either contracted the plague or Typhoid Fever and was completely bedredden.  This was unfortunately the part of the trip I was looking most forward to, but the upper respiratory thing had really set in and I was coughing and with the altitude, had difficulty catching my breath...yes, the thought that I was several hours (even 2 hours by plane) from a 'real' even remotely westernized hospital did cross my mind. Tony was feeling much better and the girls were as ready to get moving as ever. I opted to stay put in the hotel and sleep (and look out the window) and they went to visit the rock hewn churches of Lalibela. Fortunately they took LOTS of pictures.  Their day was broken in 2 parts....churches, a break for lunch, then more churches.  Take a look....







Tony and the girls really loved visiting all the churches and seeing not only the architecture but the art too.  I'm hoping one day when we go back to visit Ethiopia, that I'll be able to return to Lalibela to visit the churches myself. It took 23 years to carve out these churches. They are carved DOWN into the rock--out of solid stone....what a remarkable tribute to our God.

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