Lalibela is our last stop of the Great Ethiopian Road Trip and likely the most impressive. This is the site that has the famous Rock Hewn Churches. The churches here were all carved out of solid rock and there are 11 of them! They were all built in a short span of a couple decades in the 14th century.

The churches are in a couple clusters with cool passages and tunnels between them, some of them pretty tight and tricky to get through. We were told that normally these churches are visited over two days but we rushed and got them all done in one day. We had to rush because the churches close at 5pm and we got to the last church with only 5 minutes to spare.

Afterwards we had a great time at the Lalibela Hotel which has amazing views. Our guide strongly recommended we go to this great restaurant not far from the hotel even though we were all pretty tired. Since he never steered us wrong we went and boy were we impressed! It was a Dr. Suess looking building with even more amazing views of the valley below. The only disappointment is the food was toned down for Western tastes but was still ok.

There we ran into another group of Americans. They were all friends from IIT and one of the group was Ethipian and even though they now live in different cities met and traveled together in Ethiopia.


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