007 (Edu's TB)

Finally, after three years of sitting at home waiting for the pandemic to be sufficiently controlled that travel seems safe again, we and our small companions are out exploring the world again. Here, we visited the site of the ancient Olympic Games. This is actually a large complex including, for example, the gymnasium, where athletes trained and prepared, the Temple of Zeus and other sites honoring gods or rulers, and of course the stadium, where 45,000 people could watch the competitions. I think our small traveling companions enjoyed finally getting out of their bag, which must be very boring for them. 😉 I’m sorry I didn’t have time to take photos of them sunning themselves, but I’ll try to do better later in our trip.

We made a two-week trip to Ethiopia with one of the international charities whose projects we sponsor (iDE). We got an overview of iDE's work there, and then visited clients near Addis Ababa, Ziway, and Jimma. Rounding out the trip was a two-day visit to Lalibela -- the "touristy" portion of the visit. This is a nice community, and we enjoyed being here (except for my 30+ insect bites that kept showing up even the day after we were back home). The main reason tourists come here, though, is to visit the famous churches, created here in the 12th century by King Lalibela. Each of these ten or so churches was carved from a single rock with hand tools. You can see in the attached photo how the rock from which this under-ground-level church was carved continues in the surrounding area. It's an amazing accomplishment, and beautiful to see. Most of these churches are dedicated to particular saints, and are still in use, especially at the times that the church has particular festivals dedicated to that saint. Christianity came pretty early here, but there is also a large Muslim population. Ethiopia sets an example that the rest of the world might well emulate, with these populations not only coexisting in harmony, but sharing each others special celebrations. 🙂

Well, I'm going to have to "cheat" again. This was a nice cache, but not special in a travelogue sense. It was, however, the only cache I managed to find in Colombia. So it's the cache I've visited with my/your "fellow travelers", and I'm going to post what I think is an interesting photo for you from elsewhere in our travels in Colombia.

The photo is from the town of Guatape, where -- by law -- everyone is required to have the sort of decorations you see on the fronts of these buildings. The overall effect is amazing. 🙂

The highlight of our whole month in South America was definitely the Inca site at Machu Picchu. Photographs can't begin to do it justice. I found three geocaches in the archeological site, as well as one down in the town of Machu Picchu, at the base of the mountain. I guess my lifetime bucket list is one item shorter now. 🙂

This is my first cache in Bolivia, and first in a long tour in South America. Hope you'll enjoy traveling with me. Tiwanaku, where this cache is located, is an amazing archeological site.