Exploring Gonder

This weekend was my first venture out of Addis.  Shana Miles, a fourth year medical student and I boarded a 50 minute flight  which took us 180 km. north to  the  historical town of Gonder which was the capital of Ethiopia in the 17th - 18th century.

We hired a cab at the airport and threaded our way along a crowded road six km north toward the Simien Mountains where we visited the little village Wolleka, once the home of the Falashas or Ethiopian Jews.

Here I'm standing with two of the children outside the small synagogue in the village.

I bought a clay figure from this young woman.

We then drove back to Gonder where we explored the fortress of Fasil Ghebbi which served as the home of Ethiopia's emperors in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Our driver then took us to the Gonder bus station where we crammed into a small mini van for a 175 km ride to Bahir Dar. The road was crowded with people, burrows, horse carts, sheep, goats, cattle as well as large and small trucks.

More about Bahir Dar later,