Ethiopia: December 2013

Laura and me outside a church

I may be thousands of miles from home, but I am very fortunate to have a cousin (if not close) at least on the same continent as me.  And to help detract from holiday blues away from home, we both decided to hop on planes and meet up in Ethiopia for Christmas and New Year’s.  And it was perfect timing.  After three months of village time and 24/7 Beninese integration it was nice to have a break and touch base with someone who has even more African experience than I do.  And all I had to do was show up – Laura, with her fancy internet access, planned the rest.

Camel love!

Car caravan on salt flats

Ethiopia was great – the perfect mix of roughing-it ecotourism and take-your-breath-away vistas interspersed with boutique hotels, wine drinking and a relaxing spa day.  And the contrast between Benin and Ethiopia was immense.  Where Benin is loud, colorful, in-your-face, and tropical, Ethiopia was more subdued and mild-mannered with an arid, and at this time of the year, decidedly colder climate.  Roads were in working condition, people’s normal speaking voice wasn’t a yell, and their tourist industry is much more developed.

All the way to the top...?

Queen of the world

Here are some highlights from our trip: 

Sun set outside of our room


• Church visiting in the Gheralta area of the Tigray region.  And, no, this wasn’t your average church-hop.  Imagine hours of (fairly intense) hiking/rock climbing, at 6,000 feet above sea level under a hot desert sun to get to churches that are literally chiseled out of mountain sides and date back to the 4^th century A.D.  Churches we saw include Abuna Yamata Guh, Mariam Korkor, and Daniel Korkor.  While there we stayed at the Gheralta Lodge – worth the visit to Ethiopia in and of itself with sweeping views of the canyon below.

View from on top with our guides


• Trekking in the Afar region, which included: the Danakil Desert, the lava lake of Erta Ale volcano (one of the world’s five active volcanoes), the Asale salt lake (and camel caravans) and the Danakil Depression, the lowest point of terra firma in Africa and the hottest place on earth.  It is also here that we saw the Dallol sulphur springs (my camera unfortunately died before this point, so sorry, no photos).

Laura on her way to Mariam Korkor

•  Lalibela, an extremely important destination for Orthodox religious pilgrimages.  Here we saw the church of St. George, or Bet Medhane Alem and Bet Emmanuel, a UNESCO world heritage site.  The only thing that detracted from this part of the trip was a random bout of food poisoning from the upscale pizza we had eaten the night before.  But I mustered and made it to all the sites on our list.  There was also a little mix-up with our hotel for this night, but it all worked out for the best as Lalibela Lodge where we ended up was super cute with wonderful Ethiopian food.

Driving into the sun

 

•  Our last night was spend in Addis, the capital, which also happened to be New Year’s.  To celebrate we treated ourselves to massages and pedicures at Boston Spa (run by an American) and went out for sushi.  A perfect ending to a wonderful trip.

Other notable awesomeness included cold temperatures (oh, how I’ve missed you) with nights in the 30s and 40s, beautiful scarves, great customer service (which, from my personal experience, is hard to find in West Africa), and camels and donkeys galore.  I can’t wait for our next cousin-vacation: next stop Tanzania!

Hard at work harvesting salt

Donkeys: the new raccoon

Desert on the way to Erta Ale

Volcano! (Watch out for the caustic smoke!)

Camels at rest

Bovines!

Peek-a-boo!

 

Camel caravan carrying salt bricks back from the salt lake