Lake Tana is the primary reason that Bahir Dar exists. It is a huge lake - one of the largest in Africa and it feeds the Blue Nile River which flows up to the White Nile (what we simply call the Nile) and on to the Mediterranean. There are several small islands on the lake, most of which have monasteries. Most accept visitors but some do not allow women. Of course, these are the most interesting historically but, oh well. We visited three. One is actually on a penisula but it is still easiest reached by a motor boat and then you have transport to others. The first we visited, Ura Kinane Meret, has the largest church - a classic tukol style building which is round kind of looks like a yurt. There is also an interesting small museum here that has ancient traditional instruments, cooking utensils and an interesting example of a beehive. Honey is a fairly large agricultural product here and it is very good! The inside of all of these monastery churches starts out with a hallway that goes all the way around the center which is enclosed (storing the replica of the ark). The walls of the enclosed part are covered with very colorful paintings all depicting a specific religious story. Ethiopian Christian beliefs are a complicated mix of old and new testament sprinkled with some interesting stories that come from their 'books of mysteries'. The most famous of these books is the Book of Mary. Mary is incredibly revered here and at times it seems she is more important than Christ himself. Some of the stories that involve Mary are surprising to us such as the belief that she killed the serpent in the Garden of Eden so that Adam and Eve's lives could be saved...that timing doesn't really work based on what we have been taught but here it is a very big deal. Turns out King Zara Yaqob, in the 15th century, commissioned several religious works to be commissioned and the Book of Mary is linked to this timing. We went to two of the islands - one with the men-only church which Richard and Abebe visited while I watched birds and chatted with a young Italian woman who's mother was born in Ethiopia and left when the revolution started.  We also visted one island with a smaller church but equally beautiful paintings.
That was pretty much our day as tomorrow we leave for Gondar .