Wed, 22 Jan 2014 (14 Tir 2006) Lake Tana and the Blue Nile Falls

Wed, 22 Jan 2014 (14 Tir 2006) Lake Tana and the Blue Nile Falls Got up at 6:00 AM. Still had not firmed up the lake trip. The hotel electricity went out about 6:45 AM. It was light, so when we dressed and went down to breakfast, we had a normal breakfast, minus coffee (which could not be brewed). We also did not see any juice that morning. We had scrambled eggs with pepper and tomato, and shiro, along with bread, butter, and marmalade, and injera, if you wished. Lake Tana is the headwaters of the Blue Nile. It is a large freshwater lake. In the 13th and 14th centuries, monasteries began to be built on islands on the lake. At 8:00 AM the guide came to our breakfast table and we firmed up a boat trip to two churches on Lake Tana, and the outlet of the Blue Nile. This will include some walking. We will have to pay all entrance fees and guide charges. 200 birr ($10.50 US) for each passenger for a half day. At 9:00 AM we are picked up in a TopTop, taken a few hundred bumpy meters on a dirt road to a boat, where we wait for the other two passengers. We don't mind the wait because we watch the pelican. Finally, our boatmates arrive. They are male and female Ethio-Americans, two young adults who have lived in the US for approximately 10 years, and are American citizens. The trip across the lake is very relaxing: blue skies,comfortable weather. We pass two small islands, one of which we will visit later. We dock on the Zege Peninsula. We split a guide (225 birr, split 2 ways) and the five of us are off. We walk with our guide on the main cross-peninsula path. Almost immediately we pass coffee plants, with lots of coffee berries. We can hear the sounds of birds and monkeys. In addition to the monasteries and churches, the Zege Peninsula has a resident population. We pay an admission fee of 100 birr per person, and walk about 15 minutes to Ura Kidane Mihret, a church /monastery compound. The monastery was founded in the 14th century. The circular church (the most common shape of an Orthodox church) was built in the 16th century. We take off our shoes before entering the church. Carol has brought her Ethiopian shawl (netele). Our guide compliments Carol on the quality of the netele, and helps her arrange it. Our Ethio-American friends are dressed like casual tourists, without any covering. But it is open to all. In the main sanctuary of the church (maqdas) there seems to be unending artwork - big murals, small murals, all kinds of biblical stories, saints, angels, lots of sinners and devils, old testament stories, new testament stories, all jumbled together. The artwork is generally in vivid color. Flash photography is not allowed. Some tourists have come with tripods and elaborate equipment. We take a long time viewing. Some of the stories are not Biblical at all, but are related to Ethiopian folklore. One of the stories involves two leopards (?) approaching a saint. On our walk back to the boat, we spend a good bit of time looking at the trailside vendors' goods. Everything is supposed to have been grown or produced here. Our guide more and more urgently encourages us to buy something here. Our Ethio-Americans buy a bag of frankincense which they will give to their American Ethiopian churches. We stop for freshly roasted coffee. Mike and Carol decide to buy a bag each of frankincense and myrrh (not sold yet at Wal-Mart). We need an active negotiation to get the same price given by the other vendor. We have spent a long leisurely time on the Zege Peninsula. We then land on Entos Eyesu, one of the two islands we passed. We skipped Kibran Gabriel, on an island open only to men. At Entos we climg some rock stairs, pay an entrance fee, and view some old pictures and books. The priest telling us about the books says that they are written in the liturgical language of Ge'ez and are very old. What Lonely Planet describes as a "frankly uninteresting" site became very interesting when the Kerala based Bishop of the Indian Orthodox Church and two other clergy accompanying him also showed up. They were in Ethiopia for Timket. His English was, of course, excellent, and he was genuinely interested in answering questions. He told us that evidence of the Indian Orthodox Church appears in travellers' journals in the 2nd century: when the worshippers were said to sit instead of stand, the common way Orthodox Christians worship. Carol asked him about an icon depicting 3 elder bearded figures. With her limited knowledge, she wondered whether these were the patriarchs or the authors of gospels. He launched into a long discussion - the gist of which was that these were the representation of the Trinity. Only Indian and Ethiopian churches will so represent the Trinity. Because he was a Bishop, they opened the inner sanctum. We discretely sat on the inner wall behind him. We saw an icon of Mary and Baby Jesus that either had jewels on it or was covered by a bejeweled spun curtain. Back to the boat. By this time, it is close to 2 PM. Not enough time to see the Blue Nile outlet. OK with all of us. On the boat ride back, the Ethio-Americans told us more about themselves. The young man lives in the near Virginia suburbs and (big surprise!) works to maintain the Washington Dulles Airport. The young woman lives in the St. Paul, Minnesota, suburbs. She told us that the main Ethiopian community is on West 7th Street, near Highland Park. They were in the country to visit family, and they took the chance to see Lake Tana. They were spending more on their hotel and boat ride than we were, and they were a little surprised at how we were travelling. Back to the hotel at 2:30 PM, we are greeted by an associate of our tour organizer, who offers us an afternoon trip to Blue Nile Falls for only 225 birr each. It leaves at 3 PM. Based on our great experience in the morning and our desire to check off the two attractions of this area, we say "Why not." About 30 km after it exits Lake Tana, the Blue Nile plunges over a 45 m high rock face to form the waterfall known locally as Tis Abay (Smoke of the Nile). The Nile is 400 m wide above the waterfall. Below it follows a much narrower course. So we hurry up to the room for a quick pit stop and a water bottle refill. Mike goes out to find a slaty smack like potato chips, and comes back with something even better - freshly made french fries, topped with an Ethiopian tomato ketchup, and served up in a taped paper cone. 5 birr (25 cents US) for each of 2. We are picked up in the minibus finally at 3:20, and we wander around Bahir Dar picking up passengers from here and there. This is slower than you can imagine, and we finally make the last pickup at 3:45. As we pick up an Indian tourist, we see the Indian Orthodox Bishop at the same hotel, getting into a separate vehicle for his own tour of the falls. This Indian tourist has made a deal for an all-inclusive ride, with the tour guide paying the entrance fee. He gets the tour rep, who is leaving the bus, to agree publicly. Off we go. At the edge of town, we see an animal market with lots of sheep and goats. No way to know if they are being sold for dinner or as livestock. Very quickly, the paved road becomes rough and unimproved. The Indian passenger is dismayed. He said that no road in India would be of this quality today. This was like an Indian road of 40 years ago. The community here seems to be more of subsistence level than what we saw on the boat. At one point, we see people picking through a refuse dump. After nearly an hour, we reach the park gates. Surprise, surprise! We are asked to pay the entrance fee, which for foreign tourists is 50 birr ($2.60 US). We are truly indignant, none more so than our Indian traveler who was promised an all-inclusive trip. The other local passengers say the driver was also ripped off and cannot afford to pay these entrance fees. The Indian tourist pays and comes back with a DVD. Mike and Carol pull out their university IDs and get the student rate (20 birr). When we ask for our DVD, the woman at the fare booth says "one per group." Carol. tired of being ferenjified, demands a copy for us, and gets one. A local, who ran an upstream passenger ferry, was explaining that because it was now so late in the day, we would all be better off being driven to the ferry, paying 20 birr each to cross upstream and seeing the falls that way. This was rejected by at least part of the bus. So the bus and its passengers went to the traditional point below the falls, where the bus parks. It was now 5 PM. We were given one hour to get back to the bus. Some of us walked slowly and some quickly. We descend down the rocky trail and soon reach the picturesque 17th century Portuguese Bridge, the first bridge to span the Blue Nile. By this time, a number of locals have attached themselves to us. This is not a bad thing: two spry older men take Carol by the arms and help her as the trail climbs up through a small village toward the viewpoints of the falls. Mike is also accompanied. At the viewpoints, which we reach in 20-25 minutes, we see 4 different branches of the falls. At high water season (in July and August) this is a single falls. Of course, the trail then is nearly impassible mud. These falls are nowhere close to Iguasu Falls and they rank lower than Niagara Falls. Bradt guide says: The falls are dying because of a hydro-electric plant that diverts up to 95% of the water when it is working. There are plans in the works to put in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam which will supply more than 5 megawatts of electricity for Ethiopia and the surrounding countries, some of whom have concerns over what such a huge dam will do to their water resources. There are also conservation impacts and population displacements that will be part of such a dam. Dam or no dam, right now the Bradt guide refers to the current Blue Nile falls, as the "cliff formerly known as the Blue Nile falls." Thinking about the difficulty to reach the falls, Carol speculates that a pricey helicopter tour swooping over the falls, with the opportunity to take the ferry, could charge whatever price its operators would demand. After visiting the viewpoint, the trail crossed a suspension bridge, went down almost to the base of the falls, and then climbed back up behind the falls to the aforementioned ferry. Carol goes as far as halfway across the suspension bridge for a photo opportunity. Mike and Carol walk back to the bus with our local "guides." The Indian guy is already there, having turned back at the first viewpoints. The others are not at the bus. Eventually the driver gets a call from Bahir Dar. It turns out the stronger, younger folks on the tour had made it to the ferry and crossed. Days' end was quickly approaching. The driver, having lost control of what should have been a routine trip, found the rest of the tour back along the road. As the sun set, we drove back. Small fires were being lit in front of many of the houses to prepare the evening meal. Nearly everyone hereabouts has trunks and branches of eucalyptus which they burn to cook injera, stews, etc. On the way back, Carol and Thomas, the Indian man, who turns out to be a scientist, had a conversation about Monsanto's hybridized seed, which have caused great problems for Indian farmers who expect the seed to breed true and retain its hybrid vigor in successive plantings. He said that the Ethiopian government was being more cautious about the seed's introduction, demanding trials lasting several years. As we got into town there was a traffic stop for the small Bajaj vehicles. As we get closer to town our bus was stopped and the driver claimed he was carrying ferenjis and was allowed to proceed. We made in back to the hotel about 7:45 PM, and were met by the tour operator who asked us how it went. Since Thomas was no longer complaining, neither were we. Off to dinner the hotel restaurant. We had a fasting (vegetarian) plate. (Abyssinian Orthodox abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays.) We also ordered the fish goulash. The fish goulash was not as good as the one in Addis, but still very tasty. We decide to spend another day in Bahir Dar. Mike's in-room wash was still drying, and we hadn't had a chance to visit the Merkato and to see more of the town. In the room, we have our choice of both CNN and BBC, and have our choice to catch up on national news. We especially admire Christianne Amanpour for her tenacity in questioning Dmitri Medvedev (sp?). She won't stop until she gets answers from him.