Let's go North Now... (July 8)

 ...There were HUGE thunderstorms and a TOTAL downpour while we were sleeping, heard a few knocks on our neighbors door, and I could have sworn there was a cat in the hallway!! ha ha! :) All in all it was a GOOD night at the Maya in Nazareth.

We woke up and had a YUMMY breakfast buffet and a scrumptious machiatto made from our new friend Meron Tadesse! :) We have met SO many awesome, friendly Ethiopians! LOVE the PEOPLE! ♥

We noticed after the BUMPY ride through the Awash National park the day before, Tsegaw's van kept losing air in one tire... So we made a few stops on the side of the road to check on it and fill it up with air...

 

Tsegaw decided to get his shoes shined here as well...

 

 We met a couple guys at this stop, chatted with them a little, shared some candy and we were off...

We drove through one town (can't remember now, which one) and they were doing some road construction (Erik's specialty) - so we stopped to see how they made the cobble stone roads...

 

This is what the roads look like when they are finished....

And... here are all the workers creating one.  Erik was really impressed with their technique, the process, their tools that they used to create these roads... and not so impressed with what they are getting paid to do it...

 

 We stopped at a BEAUTIFUL crater lake - The resort was called Dreamland - we had a coke and gazed out at our beautiful surroundings.

...back on the road again, heading towards the Jemma Gorge - we stopped in Suluta and ate some sheep tibs and had some honey wine... Can't say I was sold on either of them... but, it was FUN to try them out. :)

...we finally arrived at the Jemma Gorge! WOW! Unbelievably BEAUTIFUL! - We instantly got a couple tour guides to help us across the Portuguese bridge and teach us all about how it was created, the history, etc!

 

Here we are on the bridge! :) Tsegaw, me and Erik! :)

 

 It really was an AWESOME place!!! SO glad we got to see it... We noticed traveling north - we didn't see as many people... but the countryside was SO much greener and fertile for farming.

We passed these women along the way to Debre Libanos. Tsegaw told us they collect firewood, bring it back to their village, use some, sell some... Behind them were two men - just watching this women with these GIANT loads on their back...

We arrived at the Debre Libanos Monastery and Museum.  Outside of the monastery there was a large covered area where a lot of people, who Tsegaw told us will sit there for months, praying and praying for their illnesses to be cured.  I did not take a picture of them... I definitely did not want to offend them...

We had a priest show us around and explain the art and artifacts to us and the in's and out's of the monastery.  It was very interesting. The Ethiopians have such a HUGE history. I had no idea.

After we walked through the Museum - we got in the van to head back to Addis... The drive seemed long, and I was having a hard time keeping my eyeballs open! :) ...but, I didn't want to miss a thing.  After the beautiful drive we arrived back in Addis and stopped at the Sorambe Hotel for some more beef tibs and St. George! YUM! :)

We SERIOUSLY packed a LOT into two action filled days! We were SO glad we got to get out of the City and explore a little.

Tsegaw dropped us off at the Riviera - I checked at the front desk for our HH schedule... It was there!!! And... they had us scheduled to be at HH the next day we got off the plane (July 7th)... EEEEKS! We called Wass - cuz they were a lil worried that we went MIA... Got it all smoooooothed out and ran upstairs to go to bed.... we were EXCITED to see on the schedule that we would be going on the 9th (a day early) to HH to meet our LITTLE GIRL!!!!! OH MY!!!! :)

SO EXCITED TO SEE HER!!!!