The Joy of Old Men Telling Stories

Slightly delayed post – a big storm came through last night and knocked out power. On the plus side, when power came back, my e-sim suddenly started working after being useless for a couple days. Sometimes you just need to turn the cell tower off and back on I guess.

We’re just wrapping up our visit to Lalibela. On Thursday, we were able to visit the remaining church sites within the complex. Plenty of visitors do Lalibela as a single overnight, but I’m really glad we had two nights to spend here. The more relaxed pace of the visit meant we got to soak up the ambiance and enjoy the peacefulness of the setting.

We started the day with a lovely breakfast at our lodge, then went to the churches at the southern part of the church complex. The layout at the southern complex is more complicated, with winding tunnels and bridges over carved canyons. In addition to the publicly accessible routes around the site, it’s commonly believed that there are networks of tunnels available for priests. Our guide pointed out a few places where rugs were covering trap doors. One of the highlights was a pitch black tunnel which we navigated by feel, emerging in a subterranean courtyard before a church.

Inside one of the churches, a couple of the priests were chatting and invited us to sit. I used the cheat code of asking them whether Emperor Haile Selassie ever visited Lalibela. That got them started telling stories (our guide was translating) about his visits, meeting his pet lion in the ’70s, and really got them going down memory lane. It was a joy to witness.

Leaving the site to walk back to our lodge, we were surrounded by local children, a normal experience here. They recognized us from the day before, and we got to chatting more about their plans for the future (one wants to be a vet, another a water engineer, etc). They convinced us to buy them an English/Amharic dictionary at the local bookseller – probably a ruse, but effective. We can’t say no to buying a book.

We took a break for lunch at a restaurant near our lodge, and then met back up with Ayalew to visit the final church, Biete Giyorgis or the Church of St. George. This one is separate from the rest of the site, and is the most iconic. It doesn’t have a protective roof, so it’s more at risk from the elements, but also more photogenic. Uniquely, it’s carved in the shape of a cross. This was the only time during our visit that we ran into other tourists (only a couple, but it was still a novelty).

The Church of St. George complex complex has more winding canyons, both for water management and to ensure the most dramatic entrance to the site. Kat even filmed a video – she’s such a cool young person.

We wrapped the day with reading and painting at the lodge, and made it back to our bungalow just before the storms rolled through. It would have been amazing to be at the church complex during the storms to watch the water management in action!

In a few hours, we’ll fly back to Addis, then part ways as I continue to Italy and Kat heads to Kenya. Even though it wasn’t the whole trip we’d originally planned, we’ve certainly been left with a strong desire to come explore this country more fully.