Site Report: Bahir Dar

Visits

• 2011-01-23: We were dropped off at the bus station in Gondar only to be immediately mobbed by every hustler in Northern Ethiopia. I had forgotten about that aspect of public transport in the developing world. We pushed our way toward the bus that was "leaving soon". I have definitely paid my dues in the minibus department, and I was not looking forward to a cramped four hour trip to Bahir Dar. That said, in contrast to some other countries, the minibus barely stopped to pick up passengers, and it was only partly overloaded. We were dropped off near the hotel to find a loud wedding party. The shoreline of Bahir Dar was scenic and very good for birding. The city itself was fairly modern and bustling. It was a lot different than most cities in Africa with actual sidewalks! We spent an hour of the first night walking along the shoreline, and we continued our walk in the morning going all the way to the boat jetty where I was about to be subjected to the "Monastery Tour". After much fruitless negotiation, we joined an Ethiopian man from Addis Ababa to visit some islands in the lake via motorboat. I was hesitant about this since I had already seen a monastery in Gondar, but the first island was covered with a monkey-filled forest. Walking around the forest was a bit of a challenge, though, as everyone and their grandma had set up souvenir stands. One of the stands even offered a shiny new United States quarter dollar for the low low price equivalent of four dollars! The first monastery had some nice paintings, my favorites being depictions of some disciples being tortured. Another good painting depicted a saint who, after dying, was forgiven for cannibalizing dozens of people because he gave a glass of water to the right religious guy. We then went into a museum to look at a bunch of old stuff get manhandled by the caretakers. Then, we did the same thing four more times! Of course, there was no time for getting a closer look at hippos or the Giant Kingfisher.

Species Seen

Lifelists

• Africa
• World

Trips

• Africa: Egypt and Ethiopia