Hello Lalibela

After a quick coffee and banana cake in Addis I set off to the airport with Anna who had been on the tour with us. Anna is a photogrpaher working for Intrepid on this trip and is on my flight. The rest of the team set off at 6:00am on the rest of the trip to Northern Ethiopia, something I had thought of doing but chose to go to Senegal instead. I miss them already. 

The flight was unremarkable and we arrived at Lalibela on time with no dramas. I was lucky enough to score a ride into town with Anna’s driver and guide and they dropped me at my hotel the Bete Sierke. Still being built and lovely, but also a bit quirky.

I was asked which room I wanted! I chose the one in the lower floor on the extreme left and thought I was the only one here, but I’m not. The restaurant is in a state of madness as it is still being completed and the rooms dont have glasses or drinking water. So glad I bought my own. But I have a huge room and I can watch the action on the street below.  Of course the room has no useful info in it other than a wifi password so that is a plus; Wifi in my room. 

The not so good is that they are still finishing the building and there was a guy out the back finely pounding some red clay to mix with concrete to make it red. Thump, thump, thump put paid to any thoughts of a nap. 

After a quick rest I set off in search of food and found a lovely looking hotel where I enjoyed a delicious spagetti with tomato and the standard coke. 90 bir ( less than 5NZD) was the cheapest and tastiest yet. 

Tummy filled I did a bit of a wander, met some cute kids on the way then climbed a somewhat steep hill to find the ‘ticket office’ to buy my ticket for my visits to the churches tomorrow. They are still filling out bits of paper and have a cashier who only handles money (USD50 for a four day permit) and I guess he is called a stamper who only stamps the little bit of paper. 

The hoardes of guys waiting outside the ‘ticket office’ were offering their services as a guide but since I had already arranged one through the hotel I said “no thanks” and was met by some grubby little scowls. Get over yourselves boys. 

Grabbing some biscuits and juice from a ‘supermarket’ ( it was smaller than my bathroom and not very super) I headed back to the hotel with the intention of heading out later but as soon as the sun went down it was pitch black. Street lights are obviously not a big thing here. 

Lalibela is one of the main tourist spots in Ethiopia where people come to see the rock hewn churches. Its permanent population stands at about 35,000 so it is a reasonably large town. It is still very basic.