Today we headed out for a side trip to Gorgora. This is a small town on the northern shore of Lake Tana and most famous for bird watching and a monastery with 300 year old original paintings. Today was also our first real experience with a full scale scam - more on that later but as a result of it we did not stay in Gorgora as long as we would have liked.
There isn't much to the town, if fact, we arrived at the Gorgora Hotel and walked to the lake and the monastery from there and did not really see a 'town' per se . That wasn't what we went for so it didn't matter.
There isn't much activity on the north end of Lake Tana. There isn't enough money in Ethiopia for thhis to be a real resort area for the locals and most tourists only visit the lake from Bahir Dar because that is the access to the island monasteries.
We saw a few birds (photos later) that we have never seen before. I will have to look them up and get names but they were really beautiful both in their feather 'accoutrement' and colors. One had a long white tail with black and red back and wings and white chest. Beak to tail it was probably a good 14-15" long but body size was about the size of a robin with a very long tail. When it flew it's tail just swept out behind it. Other birds were small - about the size of finches but in the most beautiful reds and greens. I don't think they were parakeets - but I am not sure.
The monastery was very similar to others we have seen but it was cool to know that the paintings were originals - many of the monastery paintings have been repainted because of damage from floods or general use. They are still amazing but the real thing, quite in tact is a sight to see. Once again some very interesting depictions of Saint Mary and some really gorey images of Herod chopping off baby boys heads etc. The locals really love to point these out. And, it is actually quite interesting to see how bible stories that we do know were depicted here 3 centuries ago.
The scam: We had read a lot about Gondar being the place where travelers are most likely to be scammed in one way or another and we walked right into one . We have had such good success with local guides that we simply did not read the cues. It started with a nice looking young man telling Rich that his back pack was open. We thought, 'how nice of him' and thanked him and that was that. The next day, we were strolling along through the piazza and heading to the market and the same young man came along and asked if we remembered him. We didn't but he reminded us about the pack and that started a conversation as we walked. This is the young man who showed us to the local markets (this was Saturday) and took us to areas of the market we would not likely have found on our own. We had a very nice day with him showing us around and chatting. We asked him if he might be able to help us with transport to Gorgora and, of course, he could. The scam turned out to be, quote one price and then once in Gorgora explain that we needed to pay another 700 birr to get back to Gondar. Well, he and the mini-bus driver under estimated Richard and me. We might have walked into the scam but we will not put up with it. We had only paid 200 birr in advance so we simply said no to the additional cost and if they wanted the balance of 500 birr (the original quote was a total of 700 birr for round trip for the two of us) they would get it when we got back to Gondar. As I said, it spoiled the day because we spent much of our time in Gorgora debating with young Alex about the deal we had made but in the end we got back to Gondar, safe and sound, and the final cost was 700 birr!
We will be much more 'aware' when approached by locals wanted to 'help' - which is a shame really because the people here are so friendly and in general very nice. They are quick with a smile and a hello and most of them don't pay much more attention to us that that.