Lalibella: A View from the Top

Robin and I were staying only two nights in Lalibella; to my surprise, many tourists come for just one night. That said, I think three night would be pushing it unless you really know a lot about architecture or engineering or architecture or Ethiopian history and therefore can appreciate the churches on a level beyond gawking. Once you've gotten your fill of the churches, though, Lalibella offers "only" (on a superficial level) friendly people "country" folk vs "city" folk ... ahhhhh); a small mercado (open-air market); some traditional coffee houses/dancing; a staging point for longer-distance church exploration; even more fleas by my experience; continued power and running water challenges (no shower that weekend); and a monastery 1,400 km above the town proper accessible only by foot or mule.

     What was that you said?!

     I'm in.

     At 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning, I was up and ready, eagerly awaiting Teddy our guide, like a puppy watching for his master. He had hired two mules from a farmer we happened to cross paths with the day before on our church tour. Teddy appeared within moments and directed me to my mule. We were off!

Yippee!! Unless you're the mule, probably.

Destination: Just beneath that rectangular protrusion on the right of the mountain lies a monastery.

Robin's mule guide.

There's a small village part way up to the monastery where my mule guide ran to his sister's house to grab breakfast, which consisted of bread. On the way back down, he quietly asked if I'd brought an extra pair of shoes with me that he might have for his sister.

Little girl from the village sporting the traditional young girl hair cut.

People carried all sorts of stuff down the mountain as we heeded up, probably to the mercado, which swelled on the weekends with people from the "countryside."

An n older woman was carrying this yellow plastic bag up the mountain by foot. I was surprised when she didn't drop off at the village and offered to carry her bag, which she happily accepted.

And my reward was to get to take her picture! I showed her the snap and raved, "conjo"--beautiful in Ahmaric; she was thrilled by the compliment and smiled a long time afterwards! ha ha! She was on a pilgrimage to the top to spend the day and night praying at the monastery, attend the service there on Sunday, and then head back down to town. It probably took us 2 hours to ride/walk to the top ... same for her on her own two feet the whole way.

Almost to the top via foot.

The monastery itself was simplistic and difficult to photograph as it was buried  pretty deeply into the rock.

Priest at the monetary.

Resting, soaking in the views and fresh mountain air. Once a year, pilgrims climb the monolith behind us, but that's not for the faint of heart.

Yeah. Amazing.