he next morning we were met by our fabulous tour guide, Awoke, and driver and had our first of many cups of Ethiopian coffee. For four coffee snobs, this was heaven. We piled into our four wheel drive I named El Burro about a week into the trip after discovering that it took to the sometimes-treacherous roads like the ubiquitous donkeys that make Ethiopia work and headed for Bahir Dar. 

The 19 days traveling around northern Ethiopia, known  for its amazing underground churches chiseled out of solid rock were filled with history, dazzling landscapes, an untold number of  pee-stops in some of the most beautiful places on the planet and one gasp of amazement after another.  It’s hard to believe that the symmetry of these churches and the artwork was produced in the 5^th and 6^thcenturies.   Some the oldest are accessible only by hiking and climbing (more on that later) and have survived only because of their remoteness.  Some can only be reached via vertical climbs only a free-climber can manage. (That wouldn’t be us).  

While there are good and cheap flights to some of these areas, we  would have missed the breathtaking beauty of the countryside traversed to reach them.  Most of northern Ethiopia is mountainous and we’re talking 12,000 feet! These expanses of dramatic mountain-scapes dwarf the Grand Canyon. 

Lake Tana: a huge Lake boasting islands dotted 
with ancient monasteries dating back  the the  the 17^th Century.  We came across a flock of  Great White Pelicans sharing the lake with fishermen in Papyrus boats.  Worship includes huge painted (often) ceremonial drums.  You can get a glimpse of some of the artwork here.  This is original and un-retouched.

Mingling with Bleeding  Heart Baboons was a high point for me.  These peaceful, beautiful grass eaters allowed us to walk among them  in a state of awe and bliss and they constantly picked at the grass,  nursed babies and preened.  

Awaiting us – high in the astounding mountains – was a ragged group of local children who had set up “shop” a short walk away, selling their wares in relative calm, until we showed some interest and then the push started. It was the start of what became a real problem at some locations where we would be hawked mercilessly and sometimes dangerously. That night we nearly froze in the hotel and while we were thrilled to have indoor showers, we were too cold to get wet. Having planned on cool weather but not freezing, we could have really used a subarctic sleeping bag.

 Christmas Eve found us at the miserable little town of Hawzen with seemingly no redeeming features and tho determined to mutiny and demand we leave before our few days of sight seeing there were up, we spent Christmas Day clamoring up a ridiculously steep mountain in search of a church.  This Christmas Day will go down in history.  After climbing a treacherous assent to view one of the famous rockhewn churches, Betty and I opted to sit it out a third of the way up.  My fear of heights and the challenge of a climb that ( had it been rapids would have been Force 9 – the only higher rating for this mountain would be Free-climbing straight up).  Holly and Bill continued with the aid of two helpers, as Betty and I sat on a ledge listening to Christmas music and Chris Kristopherson on her Kindle,  gasping as our Ethiopian companion hoped around the edges of cliffs and hoping the next days church hike would be less harrowing.

If we weren’t chagrined enough, we sat there and witnessed the daily Ethiopian trekkers (including a woman of about 70) climbing down like mountain goats and the priest hopping gingerly down the canyon wall – having taken the “easy route.”     Still – it was a good decision to stay put and the scramble down was made mostly on our butts.    For our endurance, we were thrilled to find space available at a little Italian lodge where stuffed ourselves with a Christmas Dinner of sumptuous pasta, green salad with veggies fresh from their garden, wine and Christmas toffee offered by a British tourist.  

Everywhere along the way, we saw huge, orderly piles of something that looked like hay, but was much finer.  And there were people everywhere slashing and harvesting a very fine looking grass. Every hut and village boasted multiple piles of perfectly symmetrical stacks of this stuff and donkeys and carts and even camels were piled high with it. Then there were circular threshing areas with a team of cows stomping something.  That would be teff, the smaller-than-sesame grain that is ground into paste, mixed with water and allowed to ferment before it is poured onto a huge crepe like disc and baked on an open fire.

Here are a few pictures of the process from start to finish.

To the right is the traditional oven; below the woman is
removing it from the earthenware plate.

In the next few days we toured so many amazing churches it’s hard to remember the names.  Artwork  characterized by intense colors, big eyes (which hold huge significance in Ethiopian art) and gory be-headings covered every available surface.  In religious art – and it’s all religious in Ethiopia – two eyes shown denote a good person, one eye shown with the face in profile denotes “evil.”  And always the pupils are huge, round and black – looking in a direction.  So one tends to remember the artwork, the crosses (there are hundreds – but each of three regions has it’s own cross:  Gondor, Axum, Lalibella) and odd characteristics of places and people.  For example, this almost other-worldly picture I took at one remote church on the way to Lalibela is pretty unforgettable.  It was taken with available light and no movement.  Note what appears to be a vapor streaming off the cross and his robes. It was not visible to the naked eye and not in either of the pictures before or after taken in the same location, but not of the “sacred relics.” I’ve had this experience with orbs and some other strange “energy forms” but this was a first.  

A number of churches in the general area were built built IN a cave.  Ethiopia’s Christmas is on January 7 (Julian calendar) and the high point of this trek was the pilgrims who had hiked barefoot up the mountains for thirteen days.  The belief is that if you make a pilgrimage to this particular church once in your lifetime, you are absolved of all sins and also have the privilege of being buried there.   Interestingly, families will bring the body back there, but burial entails being left on a stack of other remains and covered with a little dirt.  The next layer is just piled on.  Kinda like a grotesque layer cake.   The stack now is many feet high.  Note the skull on the top of the pile.