Flight to Lalibela

May 5—Early breakfast and another bus ride through crowded Gondar to the airport where we eventually passed through several levels of security and boarded a turbo-prop airplane for a 35-minute flight to Lalibela. We should be grateful we didn’t have to drive through the rugged mountains and deep valleys.

The bus ride from the airport to town is memorable on its own. The road climbs steeply through small villages and rocky plots of land. Farmers use the rocks that seem to sprout like weeds in the fields to terrace the hillside. It seems like a lot of work with rather discouraging results. But this is toward the end of the dry season.

And then we reach Lalibela. Rough roads wind through the villages that turn into a town, twisting up and down the slopes until we reach a new section with a paving stone road leading to hotels and tourist stores. We find our hotel and take a break for lunch, a brief rest to prepare for an afternoon of sightseeing.