Bahar Dar, April 7
Attack of the historic circuit the south side
After a short week in Addis, I launched into the discovery of the country. I attack the historic circuit, a large loop of 2500 km in the north, the town of Bahar Dar, a jumble of bars, shops and ping-pong dilapidated. In the evening, people will drink a beer at Lake Tana in watching the pelicans ...
... they throw an occasional fish.
Then they smoked the hookah, chew khat (here called chat), and dance at bars on the infamous tube-fed Ethiopian dance vocoder. But what bothers me is less music than the pervasiveness of prostitution. Quite simply, all the girls you meet in bars are there to work. Selling your body is a process quite common and tolerated to finance his studies, or simply to earn a living. But obviously, it completely distorts the atmosphere, which turns the blow somewhat murky. I am naive, I had the vague idea that Africa was also affected by AIDS because there was considerable sexual freedom, which floated a fragrance hedonistic rather nice on the continent. I repack my fantasy, it's all rather sad. A more fun to occupy his evenings is to follow the English league football. He awakens in the country a real hysteria, the emergence of satellite television has led to the appearance of legions of fans of Manchester, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. The swim clubs are everywhere and found their colors painted on the bars, foosball tables and sometimes even ping pong. On game nights, it's very simple, life stops.
The islands of Lake Tana monasteries
But hey, I'm primarily in Bahar Dar to see the Lake Tana. Already, this is one of the sources of the Nile, which asks you the lake. It is also rich in fish.
Here also the little boy who walked away with the fish I have caught with the help of a young corner.
More importantly, it houses about a dozen islands mysterious monastic churches that the world was unaware until the 30s. One morning, I go exploring on a small boat with a small group of Czechs.
After three hours of sailing, we land on a landing stone, take a small stone path winding through a dense network of coffee, orange, lemon and banana trees, before reaching a circular wooden church modest guarded by a priest and an old guard.
He reveals the inner gallery bathed in incense greets worshipers each Sunday. By cons, we do not have access to the heart of the building, which is traditionally a copy of the Ark of the covenant, because it is reserved for the clergy. The walls are decorated with paintings naive showing classic episodes from the Bible and especially the life of Jesus, but also miracles of Mary, a local specificity. Among the recurring motifs, we find the famous cannibal Balah, who ate 78 people but whose soul was saved because he gave a drop of holy water to a leper who was asking him on behalf of the Blessed Virgin. It is also commendable that monk who prayed day and night for twenty-three years with a coat of mail, just to get too hot during the day and too cold at night. And of course St. Michael and St. George, the patron saint of Ethiopia, which they pierce each dragon.
All other islands visited then show more or less the same type of church with the same paints, although their construction is spread between the XIIIth and the nineteenth century.
Some of them are forbidden to women (and all female animals!), So I find myself alone on one of them with the other boy's boat during that girls must rely on a mixed unhappy island. Obviously, we take opportunity to tell them they missed the seventh wonder of the world. At the same time, it's true that's where we come across a small museum containing an Old Testament of the fourteenth century made from the skins of 216 goats, two beautiful parasols for protecting a copy of the Ark of alliance and an impressive collection of royal crowns.
Very pious Ethiopian kings have all gone through Lake Tana at one time or another, and the founding of Gonder, where I get soon, even abdicated to end his life as a monk. That evening I returned to my hotel, delighted the walk but a little tired by the spray, and I decide m'acorder remedial care. I read in the lobby it was possible to get a massage in his bedroom. So I order one hour massage the next morning, just to relax the muscles upon awakening. At nine o'clock, at my door step and I am surprised to see the advantage and get not one but two masseuses!
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