More Adventures in Africa: Sightseeing in Gondar

On Tuesday morning, one of the BD math instructors helped us get on a mini-van at the very chaotic bus terminal in Bahir Dar. The place was filled with touts, all screaming and tugging at us to get in their van. We got in one and our friend told us what the price should be. The tout immediately started demanding more, probably because we are faranji (foreigners) but he claimed it was for our luggage. Ethiopians in the van indicated we shouldn’t pay more and the tout started screaming that he would throw us off the bus. Finally, the driver threw the tout off the bus to our relief but he too demanded more money from us and we reached some compromise. We should be used to this from our time in Kenya but it’s always irritating. We decided we would fly for most of the remainder of the trip in Ethiopia!

We enjoyed the scenery on the way to Gondar. The flat land became rolling hills which became increasingly higher. The land is very green and fertile. We saw many crops growing, including rice and corn. Probably tef (the grain used to make injera) was growing too but we don’t know what it looks like. The land is mostly terraced.

The same chaotic bus scene greeted our arrival in Gondar. Another one of the instructors met us there but we were also met by a scam artist who suggested a possible hiking trip in the Simien Mountains to us. We told him we wouldn’t commit to it as we needed more information. He however would not take “no” for an answer and followed us every day we were there, demanding money from us as we had wasted his time and had “promised” to take the tour with him. He was a bit scary as he would turn up unexpectedly at our hotel room door or by our side in the street after dark. He was also quite nasty to us.

Fortunately, we did have good experiences in Gondar. Our friend got us rooms at a nice, centrally located hotel. Mel and I had a suite for $15 a night. This was a step up as our hotel in Bahir Dar was only $10 a night. The first afternoon, we took a bajaj (tuk tuk) to Kuskuam, the palace of Empress Mentewab. She was the wife of Emperor Bakafa who reigned in the early 1700s. After he died, she built the palace and raised her son there while serving as the regent. The palace is in ruins but many of the walls and staircases and much of the banquet hall are intact. She built a special chapel to get around the prohibition about menstruating women entering a church. Her chapel was built with 12 alcoves so she could visit one every hour to pray while the priest stayed outside swinging incense. James Bruce lived with her while he was awaiting permission to visit the source of the Nile. He was one of only two Westerners allowed to visit Ethiopia at that time.

On Wednesday, we toured the Royal Enclosure or Fasil Ghebbi, a complex of six castles surrounded by high stone walls. We hired a guide for the day who was amazingly knowledgeable. The most impressive castle was the one built by Fasilidas around 1640. Fasil, as he is affectionately known, was the emperor who restored the Orthodox Church (his father had tried to force Ethiopians to become Catholic and had outlawed the Orthodox Church) and founded Gondar and made it the capital. His castle had Portugese, Axumite and Indian aspects and you can still see a Star of David on one wall. The other castles were built by succeeding generations. One emperor built a lion cage housed with real lions and walked with a lion by his side (I guess he made sure the lion had plenty to eat each day!) There was also a steam bath complex.

In the afternoon, we went to Fasil’s swimming pool complex. He built a castle outside of town surrounded by a sunken bathing hole, 2 meters high. It was used for mass baptisms as well as swimming and diving. The epiphany ceremony is still celebrated here each year with thousands of white robed worshipers surrounding the pool. They are blessed and sprinkled with the pool’s holy water. It looks like a very colorful event which would be interesting to see.

Next stop was Debre Birhan Selassie Church, the most important church in 18^th century Gondar. It’s a rectangular building with inside walls lined with paintings of dozens of biblical scenes. One wall is for the men to look at as it has scenes from the life of Jesus; the wall for the women has scenes of the Virgin Mary’s life. The paintings have never been retouched and are very well preserved. The whole ceiling is painted with cherubic faces with huge eyes.

On Thursday, we went out to the country to see a view of the Simien Mountains and to try to see Gelada baboons, Guereza monkeys and Lammergeyer birds. We drove with a tour guide to a look out and then hiked across a ridge, encountering many people with loaded down mules going to market. The fog cleared and the views down the gorge were beautiful. We chased the baboons for a while and were able to see several families very clearly. At the same time, the monkeys and Lammergeyers also appeared.

On the way back, we visited Falasha, a village which was once the home of many Ethiopians Jews before they were airlifted to Israel in the early 1990s. The only trace of Jewry remaining is a synagogue, a round tin building with a Star of David on it. We visited the Ploughshare Women’s Training Center where single mothers are taught the crafts done by the Jews before they left. The Jews were not allowed to own land so making ceramics, weavings and baskets was the way they earned a living. We purchased several items here to support this center.

After our bus terminal and van (mis)adventures, we looked into flying for the remainder of the trip. We were fortunate that we had flew into Ethiopia on Ethiopian Airlines. This gave us a huge discount on internal flights. We flew to Axum on Friday morning.

The castle complex

Our informative guide

The swimming pool complex

Roots growing over the sides of the walls

Scenes on the road

Debre Birhan Selassie Church

One of the cherub faces on the ceiling

The start of our hike

On the trek in the mountains.

A whip used to move animals along. A girl was swinging the whip so that it makes a loud sound. The whip is used by kids to find their friends in the fog!