Lilabela, Wondo and Bale Mountains

Greetings to our friends and family,

We have really been on the road for the last 4 - 5 days. We are almost worn out. Lilabela is another historic town we visited. We flew there from Axum. This town is famous for its rock hewn churches. There are over 1000 in the area but we just visited a few in Lilabela. They were carved out of solid rock in the 11th and 12th Centuries. Crazy idea in my opinion. It was a lot of work to carve and hollow out these structures. Again, they are Orthodox Christian Churches so have the same configuration with a holy room in back and chanting rooms in the front. Again, I suggest you Google "Lilabela, Ethiopia" to possibly see pictures.

Then we flew to Addis on Saturday and drove down to Wondo Genet where Bob and Nancy live. We spent a nice evening at their place. On Sunday morning we again drove many hours and kms to Bale Mountain National Park. This park is noted for its high elevations and the Nyala (a large type of bush buck) and Ethiopian wolf. Both of which we saw. We got some good photos of them. We spent two nights in Goba and visited several of the Peace Corps volunteers in the area. Bob and Nancy are like their "parents." They enjoy visiting with them as did we. In fact, last night we had a great meal of Ethiopian meat and enjera and wine/coke coolers, and beer. It was at a local place where they often freqent when together. One of the volunteers works in the Simeon Mtns with the gelata baboons. She is doing her masters thesis on the socialization of these animals. She is learning their language and trying to interpret the various sounds and signals. Another couple volunteers live on the east side of the Bale park and are working on vegetation projects. They are from Oregon and I was surprised that the wife knew a friend of mine, Paul Reese, of urban and community forestry days. We had a good conversation at the bar/restaurant. What a fun time.

Today we arose and headed back to Wondo. Another long drive but we had lunch in Shashamenee before heading to a reserve for a rare hardebeest. Road into the site was very rough. My hands were sore from hanging onto the cars hand grips. Also, it was "market" day and the traffic through the various towns was unbelievable. Traffic is of donkeys, sheep, cattle, goats, people, buses, bajajs (little tri cycle scooters which carry people), and garis (donkey and horse drawn chariots that haul goods and people). It was nice to get back to Wondo and a time to relax for a couple days. We leave for Addis on Friday and then fly to Kenya on Saturday.

I will try to write more before leaving. I'm not sure what kind of email converage I will have in Kenya.

Phil and Marcia