We drive from Chobe Chilwero to the Zimbabwe border – we need to visit Botswana immigration. We drive 2 more minutes down the road to Zimbabwe immigration. We need to change over to another vehicle on the other side of the Zim border. So our Botswana driver unloads all of our bags into the immigration office – and then we carry them across the border to our Zim driver. Zimbabwe has been undergoing severely difficult times economically, politically, and socially. While here I have read Peter Godwin’s book “When A Crocodile Eats The Sun” and it is a readable and vivid depiction of the downward spiral of Zimbabwe under the dictatorial rule of Robert Mugabe. We drive from the border about an hour to Victoria Falls where we are staying at The Victoria Falls Hotel – a hotel built in 1904 and full of history.
In the afternoon, we walk over to the local craft market. As soon as we walk out of the hotel, there are men trying to sell us carved elephants, elephant hair bracelets, painted wood giraffes…. And at the market, they are ALL over us. One building is just for the ladies who are selling – and we buy some woven baskets and bracelets from them. We all buy a few other things from some other stands. As the sun begins to set, and the market begins to close up, the prices seem to be dropping – to “sunset prices”. As we depart, the men start to ask to trade for our clothes – they want my baseball cap, my shoes, even my hair rubberband. We make one final stop so we can buy some now defunct Zimbabwean dollars – there are notes for 100 trillion dollars – inflation became so high that the value of the money would literally change hour to hour and 100 trillion could barely buy a loaf of bread.
In the afternoon, we walk over to the local craft market. As soon as we walk out of the hotel, there are men trying to sell us carved elephants, elephant hair bracelets, painted wood giraffes…. And at the market, they are ALL over us. One building is just for the ladies who are selling – and we buy some woven baskets and bracelets from them. We all buy a few other things from some other stands. As the sun begins to set, and the market begins to close up, the prices seem to be dropping – to “sunset prices”. As we depart, the men start to ask to trade for our clothes – they want my baseball cap, my shoes, even my hair rubberband. We make one final stop so we can buy some now defunct Zimbabwean dollars – there are notes for 100 trillion dollars – inflation became so high that the value of the money would literally change hour to hour and 100 trillion could barely buy a loaf of bread.
My mother starts hard negotiating – and ends up trading the Zimbabwean dollars for her sunglasses – and then, my Dad’s sneakers ….. and he walks back to the hotel barefoot.....
In the morning we head over to Victoria Falls (or The Smoke That Thunders) – located on the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia. David Livingston, the Scottish missionary and explorer, is said to have been the first European to have seen the Falls. It is also one of the Seven Natural Wonders of The World. What an amazingly overpowering sight. The falls are beautiful – and they aren’t even “full” – a lot of the mile long stretch of falls is dry until the rainy season starts.
There are complete idiots on the other side of the Falls who are trying to get photo ops – by placing themselves on the edge of the fall.
We also have the chance to watch some bungee jumpers on the bridge between Zim and Zambia. Gavin and I head over to the bridge to get a better look. I get a total thrill standing behind these people as they prepare to jump – one woman standing there quivering with fear who keeps trying to work up her courage – but she backs out. A few more jump with much less hesitation, but screaming the whole way down.
We relax the rest of the afternoon and get ready to head out the next morning. They had warned us to keep our windows closed in the hotel - and we found out why. My mom and I were sitting in her room, when I caught a face out of the corner of my eye .... a monkey was staring at us through the glass.
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