Today we go to Lalibela!

We are in Ethiopia, to be precise at Addis Abeba; we have so much desired this journey and it is finally about to begin!

This morning we woke up at 7.00 am and went down to have breakfast; there was a very rich buffet but we were not very hungry, we ate some fruit, yogurt, some sweets and then we drink a nice coffee; we are in the country of origin of coffee and we are curious to try it, even if, to try the real Ethiopian coffee, we will have to attend a coffee ceremony.

After breakfast we went up to our room to get our bags and went to check out and then wait in the lobby for our transfer to arrive.

But the driver is not alone there is also Rita our friend who lives here! What a surprise!

We were so pleased to see her and have a chat with her.

She comes with us to the airport and, in that short journey, she tells us many things, how much we would like her to leave with us, but instead, once we arrive at the domestic airport we must say goodbye.

This is an African airport!

In reality, even if most African airports are not the best, they are often old, not very functional and dark, but we love them because for us Africa is also that.

Before entering the terminal they check our baggage and then we go to check in using the self check-in, then we send the suitcase and go to the controls.

Once we have passed the checks, we find ourselves in a large room where there is a bar, that also serves food, and a small shop; we have time to wait, so we go to the bar to have a cool drink and we look around, we love to watch people at the airport, especially when we are not in Italy, we enjoy the dynamics that are created.

Our flight should leave from gate 18, or so it is written on the ticket and also on the screen; but at a certain point they call it verbally from gate 17, needless to ask why or anything else, this is Africa and we enjoy it a lot.

Once out of the gate, we find ourselves directly on the runway and walk to the airport; so in the end the gate number is not that it made much difference.

We arrive at the plane, it is an Embraer Q 400 propeller by Ethiopian Airlines; we have flown many times by the Ethiopian national airline but so far we have only taken international flights, this is the first time we take a domestic flight.

We get on board and look for our seats that are right next to the wheel cart, that is located under the wings; the seats are comfortable and we have plenty of space for the legs, the flight is short but comfort is always a pleasure.

In the end we leave with a little delay, but we took it for granted that we would not be on time; the flight to Lalibelais short, only 40 minutes, but it is the only way to reach it quickly, alternatively we could have gone by land by car, but we would have taken 2 days, a bit too much I would say.

We take off at 11.30am and we enjoy the view from the window; as soon as we leave Addis Abeba, in fact, below us we see a wonderful landscape: some cultivated plots, but most of the vegetation is wild, there are traditional villages and canyons, dug over millennia by rivers, whose walls are covered with lush vegetation; impossible not to take pictures.

When we land we descend from the plane and, again on foot, we walk a part of the track and enter the airport that, in practice, consists of two rooms: one for departures and one for arrivals.

We wait for our baggage to arrive and then we go out to the square, in theory there should be someone waiting for us and, after having turned around a bit, we finally find him; we get in the car and head towards Lalibela.

The airport is about an hour from the town of Lalibela, unfortunately it was not possible to build it closer because Lalibela is located on the mountains at 2600 meters height, but in the surrounding area there is no flat land that lent itself to the construction of an airport, so they were forced to build the airport downstream.

The road that goes up towards Lalibela is tortuous and panoramic and, as we go up, we meet many tuk tuks, people on foot, donkeys carrying weights, livestock, villages and much more; the landscape is verdant and gives us a sense of peace.

We arrive at Lalibela and at the hotel for lunch time, Panoramic View Hotel we quickly check in and then we go to the hotel restaurant: wow it has a terrace that overlooks a green valley that opens at our feet; several birds of prey fly in the sky, including some eagles and the Lammergeier or Beared Vulture, it is great to see this huge bird hovering that, unfortunately, is threatened by extinction.

We enjoy our first lunch of Ethiopian cuisine, after eating Ethiopian and Eritrean for so many times in Milan or aboard Ethiopian Airlines, we finally eat it in Ethiopia, we are almost excited!