Happy New Year to everyone from Lalibela to the world that is often forgotten in Ethiopia. E 'on 11 September 2009, but for all the inhabitants of the country instead of Menelik is the first day of New Year, which appears to be on the Ethiopian calendar year 2002. There is a festive atmosphere on the streets the city wants to rebirth and spicy aromas coming out of houses.
Tomorrow we start again, to Addis Ababa and then the East, the Islamic region on the border with Somalia. Tomorrow percoò greet the plateau, the Ethiopian plateau that we have now traveled from one end.
There has unexpected surprises: not everyone can gather to walk in the fog at 3500 meters, including dwarf trees from the Gothic style, and discover themselves suddenly surrounded by a flock of over 600 gelada baboons placid intent to comb and fight to defend own harem. Simiens dei Monti, as well as sensational views, but we brought with us too. But it was only the beginning: the tappa successiva era carica di storia, e il suo nome suona noto a tutti gli italiani. Passando da Adua (sede della famosa battaglia che l'Italia di Crispi perse clamorosamente generando un evento di cui gli etiopi tutti vanno ancora molto orgogliosi, cioè la prima sconfitta di un esercito coloniale della Storia) siamo infatti arrivati ad Axum, antica capitale di una civiltà tanto potente quanto per secoli misconosciuta (si stima fosse l'impero più importante esistente tra quello Romano e quello Persiano, ma sia i primi che i secondi ne ignoravano l'esistenza), che del culto delle steli -incredibilmente ancora in piedi, sebbene misurino più di 24 metri- ha fatto la sua eredità.
Da lì ci siamo spostati ad Adigrat (Border town, dust, and camels), passing a monastery charm extreme: Debre Damos.
Perched on a flat-topped mountain ( Amba, in Amharic), can be reached only by climbing 20 feet up a vertical cliff face, aided by a rope with a rope and milllenaria skin of an ox-drawn Monaco at the top as a skeletal single security apparatus. My hands still sweat at the thought of doing so (while the wise Jaka, recovering from a stomach rebel, chose to stay on the ground), but once I understood how the top was worth it: a world of isolated, self-sufficient and alien to everything around him, came alive in front my eyes nell'idialliaco village that is home to 200 monks in the church and that is the center and heart of life.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the adrenaline would have soon ceased to move: The next day we rented car and driver and we started to explore the wild region of Tigray: canyons, gorges, Ambe, villages of mud and a sun to bend the trees.
tigrina But the real attraction is its churches, often carved on the sides of the mountain and almost unattainable: to admire the frescoes of Maryam Korkor we climbed a steep gravel, we climbed on rocks without safe and unsafe areas we have climbed parallel to the rock cliffs that I prefer not to rethink.
Once again, the result was worth the effort: from the top of the mountain, next to the church, stretched before us an infinite horizon, which crossed Eritrea and there inside was lost.
Another exhausting journey of breathtaking scenery and between all shades of green countryside tigrina, and here we finally come to Lalibela, where the Ethiopian religious architecture reached its zenith undisputed: the underground church (that is carved into the rock) City are perhaps the highlight of the whole plateau, and during the holidays to get the New Year has assured us a mystical atmosphere worthy of their beauty. Hard to forget the stylistic perfection of Beth Yorgis, with a Greek cross and carvings from the refined, as it appears at the bottom of a huge artificial basin dug into the tuff.
Un'Etiopia spectacular and charming then, but in every aspect that is affected by a deadly virus: the isolation faced for millennia. An isolation that has allowed him to preserve artistic treasures of great value, but that on balance has rather damaged, not used to dealing with foreigners like the people close to them (Ethiopia is one of the African countries with the lowest rate immigration, as if they are not call centers in order to bring the family back home), the Ethiopians are often naive and insistent, if not annoying and harassing.
Too busy to be proud of what we have, most (obviously not all) of them is curious about the world beyond national borders, and even the official guides show incompetence also frightening when compared to the standards of neighboring countries .
The same isolation has also exacerbated the religion, which becomes punishing more than saving, and enhances the dogmas in order to preserve the power of the clergy, in Ethiopia there are 6000 priests every 60 doctors. As always, fortunately, is an exception to every rule, and we met many Ethiopians did appreciate the best side of these people. But this does not mean that in 2002 is very difficult to be a faranj in Ethiopia. Let's go ahead anyway
exploration and the new year has begun in the best possible way, a fiery red sun is fading on the gentle slopes surrounding Lalibela.
A hug plateau
Tommy and Jaka
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