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‹ Previous (11/11/2007) MONTH Next (2008-01-10)› ‹ Previous (2007-11-09 - Kenya) COUNTRY Next (2008-01-14 - Sudan)› Ethiopia Adis ababa (see on map) 17/12/2007:
We have remained another week in Addis Ababa with the expectation to obtain the visa for Sudan, but today Monday the 17th, after having been phoning and visiting the embassy in each of the previous days, they have communicated that they had not received any answer from Khartoum. With more insistence, today I have asked whether there was any way to accelerate the obtaining of the visa and then, one of the officials has informed us than if we carried out the visa of Egypt today, we could carry out a transit visa of 15 days for Sudan. And he has continued explaining that if we did not obtain the visa today, we should wait for more than one week because the embassy closes up to the 27th of December for the Muslim holidays of Christmas. We have run towards the embassy of Egypt where they have informed us that at three we would have the visa. We have paid a little more of the official price established in a paper hanged in the wall, but I have not complained, because at three we already had the visa. Next we have run towards the embassy of Sudan and presented ourselves in front of the official who had suggested carrying out a transit visa. But he has sent us to another department and they have informed us there that they could not carry out the visa because they had too much work. In the same situation we met an Austrian couple, a man from Ireland and a Sudanese woman with French passport that couldn't visit her family in Sudan for Christmas. All the whites that were in the embassy have come out with the intention of meeting again on 27 of December and, celebrating Christmas two days before together. When knowing the answer of the embassy of Sudan we have decided to visit the North of Ethiopia this week, for we had nothing else to do in Addis Ababa. Anyway, the previous week in the capital we almost had no time to rest. When arriving from Harar we realized that the battery was discharging too fast and we were half a week checking the acidity of the liquids and looking for a new battery that was adapted to the car. The other half of the week we dedicated it to look for a spare wheel because one that we had was about to burst. And to finish, in the weekend my portable computer lost the windows and I had to take it to a small office of computer service where the data has been recovered and they have reinstalled the windows and the majority of programs. Anyway, having a bit more time to know a little more Addis Ababa, we went up on Entoto Mountain contemplating the greatness of the city and visiting the cathedral of San Jorge (or St George) dedicated to the same saint protector of Catalonia, the saint on the horse killing the dragon. When entering the octagonal cathedral I had to remove the shoes to be able to walk above the carpets. In a corner there was a group of men singing an uninterrupted, rhythmic and hypnotic song. I kept putting aside the curtains that separated every room until I found a group of about 15 or 20 men some with turban, some covered with a white mantle supporting in a stick and making sounds rhythmically using a metalic instrument. Two men accompanied the melody sitting and knocking two big drums with the hands. I remained a good while, captivated by what seemed a Hindu ceremony or Muslim in a Christian church, observing and listening to the songs. Lalibela (see on map) 23/12/2007:
If on a side of the balance we put the visit to Lalibela and on the other one 20$ of the entry, the 1400 terrible kilometers recurred on 4 days of driving (40 hours to the steering wheel), the 70 $ for diesel and the breakdowns of the car (four punctures that we fixed on the road, the crick to change the wheels broken, the protection touching again the engine, the fridge without working, two changed fuses and possible electrical breakdown), I would prefer definitely by the visit Lalibela, but Alexandra had preferred undoubtedly to stay in Addis Ababa. Was annoyed by the bad rocky roads and did not visit any of the churches. But yes I visited them and I went out captivated. The churches of Lalibela, were cut into the rock in 1200 representing the sacred land in reply to the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslims. Four of the ten churches are completely excavated in a stony mass, with thick walls and big columns holding the heaviness of the ceiling leveled from the original rock. The architectonic show is marvelous; the quantity of cubic meters of rock that had to be emptied is impressive. I heard a guide commenting that about 40.000 workers were used, and this number confirmed the thought that the work had to have been a work of ants. The first Church that I visited was the marvelous Bet Giyorgis (Church of San Jorge), that it is said that it was built after the visit that the Saint to Lalibela riding his white horse. Bet Giyorgis is the master peace of Lalibela, the icon of Ethiopia; it is moved away from the rest of churches, excavated in a huge rock. I lowered through a passage of rock cut nearby and crossed two porches up to the courtyard that surrounded the church. I had arrived a little too early, because the church was closed, but waited in a passage of stone, at the end of which there was a group of men and women brought together in front of a curtain. The women went out trembling and with the hair wet and a priest blessed them and touched them with a wooden cross on the face and the shoulders. Despite being in an orthodox Christian church, they all greeted each other with a "salam", as if in a mosque in Catalonia the believers said goodbye with a "good-bye". When the men started to shower also they offered me to shower me jovially, but I refused giggly. When they finished I had a glance behind the curtain, expecting to observe a chorrito of water falling through some channel excavated in the rock, but there was a simple tap that broke all the mysticism of the moment. Later I could visit the marvelous church and all the others, convincing myself that the journey to Lalibela had been worth. Besides, all the mechanical problems suffered during the journey to Lalibela havent been in a complete way negative, since it would have been much worse to suffer them on the way to Sudan. In Addis Ababa we have Andrea Rossetto, a friend of Claudio, which has a service where they work very professionally and economically. I will have to ask Andrea what happened with the four punctures, in two different wheels, some of which were new. Finally, another plus point to the visit to Lalibela has been the landscape, which although in many moments the road did not let us enjoy, it was always splendid. We crossed ranges, plateaus, valleys... with the fields mowed down and the straw piled up, and small villages of houses made of stone, some of a rectangular form (near Addis Ababa), and other circulars (near Lalibela). At all times children also appeared running from the fields greeting us and asking for money, and some adults also. I do not think that anybody of those that ask for money has ever received something from a white person, even so they have the conviction or belief that the whites give money or things away freely. Some ask for money quite aggressively or running long distances behind the autocaravan, and when i faced them and i say I don't give them anything they remain well surprised. we almost never gave anything, either most of the whites that we have known in Africa, so, from where they have taken this belief? I mean that there must be rich tourists that occasionally come full of pens to Africa to give to the children (or even money) and the history of a child receiving a pen or 10 cents of dollar must run as the gunpowder through the community and the different villages, in the same way that the history of the one that won the lottery that cheers up to the rest to keep betting, or to keep asking. In any case, I also think that the ONGs have part of responsibility, because when giving money away to carry out a project in a community or village it generates the idea that the whites give free money. It is also possible that the donations of the white countries during the hunger that Ethiopia has suffered at the beginning of the seventies has contributed to this idea. I have kept desires of contrasting these ideas with some ONG, for we had opportunity to visit one at about 600 kilometres away from Lalibela, but due to the state of the roads, we have discarded the visit. Meanwhile, we will keep disappointing the children, without giving money nor pens, although we will occasionally keep giving away the empty bottles of water or food that we are not going to eat. Adis ababa (see on map) 31/12/2007:
Alexandra felt like celebrating Christmas in Addis Ababa and for this reason we had been running to reach Lalibela, I have visited the churches in 24 hours and we rushed back towards Addis. We reached Addis on Monday 24 in the morning and we met again with Michael, Stephania, and their small daughter Maria, the Austrian couple that we had met in the embassy of Sudan some days ago. With them we visited another group of travelers in a hotel in Addis to organize some dinner or meal on Christmas day, but they had already bought food for the dinner. In spite of everything, they invited us after dining to do drink, but at night Alexandra was feeling bad (there is the flu in Addis) and we remained at the house of Claudio looking films on the computer. Yes, in any case, the following 25th we ate for Christmas in a pizzeria with Michael, Stephania, and Maria. Even if Christmas was an almost sacred tradition for Alexandra, I think that she is also suffering the typical uprooting of travelers, in which the emotive events of the country of origin (holidays, traditions, political conflicts, soccer games...) lose importance. For me its been some time now that happens the same, sailing between two cultures without identifying myself with any of them. On Wednesday the 26th we have been all the day in the service of Andrea Rossetto, fixing the damages of the car caused by the journey to Lalibela. In this same day, all my family was brought together in Barcelona celebrating Christmas. It is curious but, despite having received a call from my parents two days ago wishing us a good Christmas, I did not think in my family brought together until now that I write the journal (more consequences of the uprooting). We had to pass the night in the service, because they had sent the stárter of the car to another service to clean it and would not be ready until the following day in the morning (in fact the stárter had a more severe problem, but I decided to solve it further on). On Thursday 27 in the morning, we took a taxi towards the embassy of Sudan. It was the first day that they opened after 10 days of holiday. Before closing on the 17th, they had informed us that on the 27th we could carry out the transit visa and that we could collect it on the following day. But we could only carry it out, because in the afternoon they informed us that although our visas were accepted, we could not pay them until the 31st and get them on January 1st of the next year. So, we got another 3 days in Addis Ababa, without any damage to repair nor any attraction to visit. In the same situation were Michael and Stephania , so we decided to share the waiting and the end of year with them. We kept camping at the house of Claudio, but every morning we moved the autocaravan up to the hotel where the Austrians were lodged and we spent time with them, conversing or playing badminton with Michaels rackets. Michael is a youngster that soon will be 30 years old, hard working and helpfull, and in Austria he is called to solve or to build anything. Stephania is a 20 years old girl, simple and vegetarian, who little after knowing Michael remained pregnant. Even then, few months after having the girl they made a long journey through India, and after working a little more in Austria, they embarked on a new overland journey up to Ethiopia (not further because the engine of their old autocaravan is not in a good shape). Their daughter Maria is a happy and extrovert girl of 20 months that always captivates the heart of the Ethiopians. At the moment Maria is quite a lot pampered, with her eyes and smile she obtains anything that asks for, even if it is the sweet of a poor child that sells them through the street or a banana of a fruit shop. 31december, the last day of the year, was the day of going to Sudan embassy to pay for the visa. We have arrived to the embassy in the morning, 30 minutes later of the standard time of opening. outside there were about 500 Ethiopians (I counted them approximately) also waiting to enter. The guards have left us to wait near the entry (the whites have priority), even so, we have had to wait for about two hours under the burning sun. Together with us and the Austrian there were other whites of different nationalities: Germans, Belgians, Dutch, English... also a Chinese and two Koreans that we also met before at the embassy. Definitely, the embassy of Sudan is the meeting point of the foreigners in Addis Ababa. The waiting of the 500 people in front of the embassy has seemed to me a shame, but afterwards I have remembered having seen in front of the European embassies similar queues, therefore, i could not complain. When opening the door, Alexandra and the Austrian have been able to be strained, but due to the chaotic subsequent agglomeration, the officer has not let anybody else enter and I have stayed outside. The guards had to start to rinse the entry with the stick and have managed to form two side queues in front of the door, most of them for sure would not enter today. The embassy of Sudan had been closed for the Ethiopians for 15 days and this was the reason of the exceptional agglomerations. On the other hand, the great quantity of Ethiopians that ask for the visa of Sudan seem to be one of the main motifs of the difficulty to obtain the Sudanese visa from Addis. All the foreigners, including the Ethiopians, need the approval from Khartoum to have the tourist visa. However, from Egypt, in 24 hours they deliver the visa. There are travelers that fly to Egypt from Addis to obtain the visa and to be able to follow the journey overland afterwards . After half an hour observing the policemen putting order in the queues, the officer of the door has let me enter. All the whites were waiting to pay in front of a ticket window that was closed. Finally we have been able to pay the passports and to deliver the passports late on so that on Wednesday 2nd the passports will be return with the visa. After buying food and drinks we have gone to the hotel where the Austrian were lodged, to celebrate the end of year with them. Although we had announced to the hotel, to the parking place that we had reserved the place next to the autocaravan of Michael Stephania on our arrival it was taken by two cars. Alexandra was already with a bit of bad humour, but this setback has annoyed her totally. The afternoon has kept passing but the cars did not leave, and the fury of Alexandra has increased, insulting the workers of the hotel and without talking to me because I accepted the reality and did not defend her opinion. Alexandra was of such bad humor that in a moment that I have gone to buy beers with Michael, he has asked me innocently "you will follow the journey alone when Alexandra will not resist anymore"?. Finally one of the drivers has appeared and he has parked the car out of our assigned place, but the other car, a taxi, has continued in the same place. Observing that the taxi driver did not arrive and that the annoyance of Alexandra did not decrease, the workers of the hotel have opened the taxi with some tweezers and been able to put the car aside. So, I have finally been able to put the autocaravan next to the Austrian one. Even then, Alexandra has not been soothed and has followed annoyed and screaming hysterically to the workers of the hotel, so much, that they were about to ask us to leave the hotel. But I have asked them a moment to fix the things, and while Michael invited them to a whiskey I have complied with one of the threats that terrified Alexandra and so i have cut the tail of Tuki, her beloved elephant. That has calmed down Alexandra, even though we have not had one of the happiest ends of years, but i tried to forget the previous moments with beers and half a bottle of whiskey. 02/01/2008:
After the unfortunate night of the end of year, I communicated very seriously to Alexandra that if she had another nervous crisis we would separate. Since Zambia she had 5 crises in different situations and I do not find forces of holding any more. Alexandra is as a spoiled girl that when the things are not as she wants starts to scream or to cry, as when we could not park nearby of the Austrian, when i wanted to move the autocaravan to visit a friend to the outskirts of Nairobi, when we didn’t find a calm place to park on the beach of Diani, when I blocked the car on a road when going to Livingstònia in Malawi, when I diverted before Lusaka to visit a fort that appeared on the map... In any case, the tension seems that has kept being softened today, when at last we have been able to collect the visa of Sudan (did more than one month that we had requested it) and we have started to go towards Bahir Dar, where we expect to relax with the Austrians. We have kept leaving Addis Ababa behind with a strange feeling of fault, during the month that we had passed in the capital, it had not carried out any interview to take the pulse in the world, although it had had quite a lot of opportunities, especially with the friends of Claudio. I have proposed from now to be taken more seriously the project. Bahar Dar (see on map) 08/01/2008:
Bahir Dar is a charming town in the South of lake Tana, right next to the birth of the Blue Nile that takes the waters of the lake. From the hotel where we camp we could go, surrounded with blacks that observed us as if we were a touristic attraction, to plunge in the lake. Often, the horizon of the lake was cut back by a rank of pelicans that fluttered the wings rhythmically. In the garden of the hotel there were other species of smaller and more curious birds, some with a long tail that I could not photograph. Bordering the lake there was a pretty alley, to the end of which I discovered a bar where tens of pelicans were expecting some fish to be thrown at them. Bahir Dar was a good point to celebrate an anniversary, and this was what Michael did on his 30 aniversary. During these days, and accompanied of some beers, we have been talking about our lives and on our projects and dreams. Michael is a simple boy who wants to live out of the system. Few years ago he was living for three years in a hut without running water nor electricity, near the forest, and there he wanted to live all his life. But he complained about the Austrian government not allowing him to comply with his dream, because by doing it, the government would take his daughter from him. I explained him my situation, completely the other way round, my fathers are those that went to live out of Barcelona in a farm without running water nor electricity. There I grew until I was 20, but after the studies I integrated to the system creating a company. I thought that by going around the world it was a way of detaching myself from the system, but Michael did notice wisely that i followed completely integrated into the system, traveling with a modern autocaravan, with sponsores, writing for magazines, thinking to write a book... The third or the fourth day in Bahir Dar we went to the cascades of the blue Nile, few kilometres away from lake Tana. In spite of the disapproval of Alexandra, I offered to the Austrian to go all with our autocaravan. Even then, Alexandra knew how to hold her nerves back and did not become annoyed excessively when the small Maria peed in the seat or when the gas protection came off due to the vibrations of the road. In any case, Alexandra stayed in the car while I walked with the Austrian up to the magnificent cascades. Anyway, formerly the cascades had to be still much more impressive, since much of the water of the blue Nile is collected for a hydroelectric power station and the image is quite far from the one shown on the one bir notes (0,10 $). Yesterday, Michael fixed me for free the box of the gas cylinders broken on the previous day, and I visited alone the captivating monasteries of the lake Tana. I shared a small boat of the hotel with two other couples of tourists and we direct ourselves to the monastery of Entos Eyesu, that I did not visit (the 3.5$entry tax in any church)cause I did not found it recommended in my guide, but yes I visited the pretty monastery of Kebran Gabriel founded in 1321 on half of a small island where 64 monks live. There, observing the pretty paints of the central walls, they explained to us that the Ethiopians think, according to the Bible, that Jesus was mulatto, mixture of white and black, as the Ethiopians. With the four solid central walls, the monastery was surrounded by a circular wall and exterior to this, still under the roof of straw, some pretty doorways of columns. The monastery of Ura Kidane Meret in the peninsula of Zege had the same structure as the previous one did, but perhaps the paints surpassed with beauty. Maybe for this motif, the surroundings were full with vendors of craftsmanship, which is always expensive and without the appeal of the other African countries. At night we met a German who lives in Ethiopia for 7 years now. We started to talk about politics and explained us the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea would be able to explode again, basically due to the unsuccessful situation of Eritrea, which does not have even combustible exchange. A war would be a good way to silence the internal protests. On the other hand, the ethiopian military force is focused on Somalia, helped by the United States. The temporary government of Somalia internationally asked Ethiopia for the support of its army to reconquer the country. But the reason of the Ethiopians was to close the Somali Islamic courts that claimed to the Muslim Ethiopians territory of the same Somali culture and they had condemned all the orthodoxs in the region to death. Anyway, the Ethiopians in general are not interested in politics, although they are not informed, for example, is impossible to know the military casualties owed to the invasion of Somalia. Today, in the afternoon we have rented some bicycles (0,35$/hora) and have pedaled towards the outskirts of the town, crossing the Blue Nile and going afterwards towards the lake Dutch farm that produced cheese. The cheese was delicious, but have only been able to buy 500 g, because the other sizes that they still had were enormous. In any case, the excursion with bicycle has been a good way of saying goodbye to Bahir Dar. Tomorrow we will arrive to Gondar and after two days will meet again with the Austrian on the road to Sudan. Gonder (see on map) 10/01/2008:
Before leaving Bahir Dar, an Australians couple that were lodged in the same hotel asked me of taking them towards Gonder and in exchange paying us the equivalent to the bus thicket. i knew that it would not be on the taste of Alexandra, but I accepted. In any case, in the end it was Alexandra the one that maintained a conversation closer with them that I did. While we circulated through the well paved road, I observed a pretty rock that I wanted to photograph and stopped. As I expected, ten children immediately appeared running from everywhere asking for money or pens. When returning from making the photo I delivered a bottle of empty water to one of the children, but as i started the car greeting them, I saw on the rear-view mirror that one of the children started to throw kicks with force against the autocaravan. With rage, I stopped while the child in question ran away. To the instant I caught a stone and threw it with aiming, although fortunately I did not touch him. Then I returned to the car threatening the rest of children, who were still paralyzed. But this was not the only incident with the children. After leaving the Australians in their hotel in Gonder, I parked in front of the royal enclosure area and Alexandra started to prepare the food. We ate and, while I was shitting, a child knocked the door. Alexandra let sound the alarm a minute, but instantaneously the child (or children) kept knocking stronger. The process was repeated 3 times, without the children stopping pricking the door and in the end, annoyed, barefoot and with the belt unlocked, I opened the door suddenly and caught the first child that I could, I slapped him a couple of times, while some older boys mocked further on. In the end it worked out that the child was the biggest of the ones that pricked the door and although he denied that he had done it, I lectured him that he deserved it as well: because he is the biggest and he has not stopped the others from doing it. In spite of these small incidents, we have been able to enjoy Gonder, which is called the Camelot of Africa. Alexandra also enjoyed, because after a lot of time we have visited together a touristic attraction with payment (another exception is the museum of Addis Ababa) . The Royal enclosure of Gonder is marvelous, it would probably not be so extraordinary in Europe, but for its presence in Africa it is. Ethiopia had been a country governed since before the birth of Christ by different royal dynasties, who had benefited from the privileged situation of the country, between different commercial routes. At the beginning of the 17th century, the emperor Fasiladas founded a new capital in Gonder (the previous ones had been in the province of Lalibela) that was successful during a century and a half, until the Shakespearian conspiracies and intrigues provoked its slump. The Real enclosure contains different palaces and castles, some of which are preserved quite well and others only in rubbles. Except for the Royal enclosure, some churches (which we have not visited) and the baths of Fasiladas, Gonder does not have too much interest. Even then we have remained until today, using the last birs. In the afternoon we have gone out from the city towards Sudan, with the intention of stopping ten kilometers after the beginning of the road, in a point agreed on previously with the Austrians. Michael, Stephania and their daughter Maria were already there, and their car surrounded with children and some adults. We have parked behind them and we have started to talk about the annoying Ethiopians. Anyway, after little, a man of a next house has approached and he has invited us to take coffee. Me and Michael have accepted thankful and while we took the three cups of rigour, the small Maria ran around through the small house of mud making everybody laugh. I liked the hospitality shown, even then, when finishing taking the coffee we ate a little of injera (the typical food of Ethiopia), and understood that the hosts asked us for money, although not very insistently. It is a pity that the Ethiopians always think about money when they see whites. It is true that the majority are poverty-stricken, but not so much as in other countries for which we have passed. Later, thinking about the motives of the poor Ethiopian hospitality, I have thought that the religion plays a very important role because the Christian religion does not oblige to hospitality, on the contrary to the Muslim religion. As we returned to the autocaravans, we have found that Stephania had just cooked a delicious soup. Michael has offered a dish to our previous host, who has accepted with pleasure. Anyway, it has surprised me the little skill to hold the spoon (they always eat with the hands), but it has still impressed me more to observe the face of disgust when trying the soup, the same face that the rest of the boys that have tried the dish made, until they have thrown it away. I could understand that Alexandra made equal face of disgust when trying the injera, but I couldnt accept that this could happen with an exquisite Austrian soup. ‹ Previous (11/11/2007) MONTH Next (2008-01-10)› ‹ Previous (2007-11-09 - Kenya) COUNTRY Next (2008-01-14 - Sudan)› |
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