This past weekend, Laura, Sarah and I took a weekend adventure to Lalibela. This city situated in the north of Ethiopia is very historical in that it is known for its incredible monolithic churches. I've inserted a CNN video on the history of the churches below. It's rather interesting and beautiful.
We flew from Addis to Lalibela on Saturday morning, arriving at our destination at about 9:30AM. The airport was appoximately 30 minutes by car away from the city of Lalibela. The scenery there was incredible. It was strewn with rural villages along the way. The day we arrived was a huge market day in the city, so villagers and their donkeys from all around the city were making their way to the market with their goods to sell. Our shuttle van to the hotel that morning had quite the time making it to the city as the driver spent a lot of time on the horn dodging people, cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, chickens, etc. along the way. I kind of enjoyed them there because it slowed the ride down so that I could take a few photos of the scenery both on the road and of the topography. See pictures below.
On Saturday after we settled into our amazing hotel - the Tukul Village Hotel - we meandered around Lalibela a bit. We made a brief visit to the market before visiting and touring one of the clusters of monolithic churches in the afternoon along with St. George's Church, the most famous one. Making our way through the churches seemed a lot like a fantasy land. It was like a maze made in volcanic rock with beautiful Ethiopian Orthodox icons and religious articles all around. Sarah hit the nail on the head when she said that it was like we were Alice in Wonderland. Amazing.
On Sunday, the three of us took mules up a mountain about 15 kilometers away from Lalibela to the Asheton Mariam Monastery. This was no beginner's mule ride. We trekked through some intense terrain to reach this place. Many times we had to dismount our mules and hike up the most rigid and steep parts. I liked to think of this particular excursion as our trip through Middle Earth. I think that The Lord of the Rings trilogy movies should have been shot here. Once we finally made it to the top, we found that Mass had just ended and a meeting of parishioners. A priest from the church showed us some texts and a a huge crucifix that is held in the church. There were a number of villages on our way up the mountain and absolutely staggering views of the landscape. Even more pictures are below.
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