zimbabwe - hwange, vic falls & matopos

I think my sister has had the chance to see what our traveling experience entails.  Some amazing, great moments, as well as incredibly frustrating moments!

Amy's flight was delayed 24 hours, leaving her in Ethiopia for a night, while we anxiously awaited her arrival.  Luckily, she had an ok experience there, and nothing traumatic happened to keep her there.  Our lovely hosts that we were staying with in Harare not only drove us to the airport twice (which, if we took a taxi would have cost us $100 total!) but insisted that we have my sister stay with them as well...feeding us a delicious Indian dinner.

The following day, the three of us hopped onto the Citylink bus towards Hwange, where we would be staying at Miombo lodge and doing a safari the next day.  Its a bit unfortunate that its so difficult getting to any of the national parks in Zimbabwe, as no public transportation will bring you to any of them!  Our bus essentially dropped us off at a hotel in the middle of nowhere, and our lodge had to send a driver to pick us up from there for another 45 minute drive.

Once we arrived at our lodge, however, we were very pleased.  We were surrounded by bush, and found out we were the only guests staying there, which was both nice for us (quiet), but sad to think their business didn't seem to be doing very well.  Our accomodations were simple but nice, and the staff was incredibly nice and hospitable to us.  We had all of our meals cooked for us (which we really didn't have a choice about, since there was no where else to purchase food or cook it!), and ate very well.

After a relaxing evening, we woke up the next day to do our safari in Hwange National Park.  This park is the largest and oldest in Zimbabwe, hosts 108 mammal species and one of the largest elephant populations in the world!  Our incredibly knowledgeable guide Steven picked us up at our lodge in the morning, and we were on our way.  When we started the drive, we saw a few antelope, and not much else.  I was a little concerned that we might not see a whole lot, especially considering the bush was thick (making it difficult to see animals) due to the current wet season.  Luckily, things turned around and we were able to see: giraffes, wildebeest, impala, zebras, baboons, warthogs, tortoises, many interesting birds.  Perhaps the most exciting was when we saw an entire herd of elephants cross the road right in front of us!  It was a bit frightening as a large elephant was just few from us at one point, but it was an incredible experience and we got some great photos.  We didn't see an lions on our safari, but spotted one the previous day with our taxi driver.

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We were sad to leave our lone paradise in Hwange, but ready to move on to Victoria Falls.  Our taxi driver drove us to where the bus had originally dropped us a few days ago, where we were prepared to take a bus a few hours to our next destination.  When we arrived there, we were promptly informed that our bus was running four hours late.  As I mentioned before, we were at a hotel in the middle of nowhere, so we got out our books and cards, and were prepared to wait six hours for our bus.  At 10:00 pm, we were starting to panic that our bus wasn't going to come get us, and perhaps the bus ride was cancelled (and the buses don't run every day, so we didn't know when we'd be able to get out!).  We tried to call the bus company, but of course no one answered (as no one seems to at any business we ever try calling).  The hotel owner told us we would need to get a room in just minutes as they were closing reception for the night.  The security guard allowed us to stay out a few more minutes, when low and behold, the bus showed up.  We arrived in Vic Falls at 2:00 am, falling into our beds from a long day of waiting.

The next morning we awoke rather early from the loud noise of the television coming from outside.  As we woke up in our steamy 10 ft x 6 ft dorm room we went out to explore our new home for the next four days, as we couldn't see anything in the dead of night.  Shoestrings hostel was recommended to us by a few people we've met in Africa and many people online.  It is a rather large complex with a restaurant, pool, several dorms and private rooms and very popular bar.  It also has loud music pumping about 17 hours a day.  As I am not 18 years old or an alcoholic I was slightly underwhelmed by the place.  The fourth person in our dorm perhaps was an alcoholic as he was drinking almost every time we saw him and we paid the price at night by listening to his incessant snoring.

Not all was bad for our Victoria Falls Christmas experience, however.  We spent the 24th actually at Victoria Falls, which were spectacular.  We had recently visited Iguazu Falls in Argentina and Niagara Falls in New York, and Victoria Falls certainly did not disappoint in comparison!  "Sista Claus" (later referred to as "Sista Nurse" for rescuing us with Pepto and Advil) as we affectionately called her, saved us by bringing many of the things we lost in the robbery and couldn't find in Africa.  We enjoyed a traditional African dance show (of which I got pulled up to embarrass myself by learning a dance) and on Christmas Eve got to see the "Tin Can Kids" perform, as well as do candlelight caroling and see a fire dancer perform.  The Tin Can Kids were a joy to watch, and incredibly entertaining.  As listed in the changemakers website, "The Tin Can Kids are a young talented group of children ages 5-12 who were found under a tree in the township areas of Victoria Falls playing the most amazing drums off junk, the most inspiring thing about them, they learnt how to create music all by themselves. Their equipment consists of items like car springs, the back of a T.V set, broken pots , empty buckets and other scrap material." (www.changemakers.com).   Even though my family wasn't together for the holidays, we were all able to chat, which was a wonderful gift for me.

 

On Christmas Day we had a fairly relaxing day where we had a Christmas lunch made by Eddy, the chef, who was a dear man eager to please us, as we were the only people in the hostel who purchased the Christmas lunch.  We also were treated to hour long massages by Guy (he paid for them, he didn't actually give them!) for $20 a piece!  Finally, a bargain in Zimbabwe!!  It was fantastic, and Amy even had her massage given to her by a mother with an infant strapped to her back (as many women do in any job they have).

That day we also ventured out to the curio market, where we were going to check out local crafts.  We were mauled.  It was a very overwhelming experience, to say the least.  As we were walking the path to get to the market, several men appeared, offering to "take" us there (even though we clearly knew where to go and there were signs).  One man kept telling us over and over "hakuna matata" (which means "no worries" in Swahili)..."don't worry...hakuna matata."  My sister's response: "We won't forget, how could we EVER forget?"  We were really wondering what in the world the motivation was of these men to "take" us there, perhaps to get a cut from the shop owners if we were to buy something?  Strange.  Once we actually arrived at the market, there was a second wave of being overwhelmed.  Perhaps 30 small shops were all lined us with beautiful hand-made items, each with a shop owner, eager and waiting to greet us.  All of them wanted us to buy something, ANYTHING, and many of them wanted us to trade something (especially Guy's football jersey).  As there was constant pressure to buy and no time to think, we just tried to make it out alive!  We left empty handed, as we just couldn't bring ourselves to buy from one man and leave all of the others hanging.  Once we left, we talked a lot about how grim their situations must be.  It is hard to imagine that these men are able to make a real living from what they do, there was a huge lack of tourists there, and its a shame that the beautiful crafts they make can't be led to the hands that could pay for them.  It was certainly a sobering experience.
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Moving on from Victoria Falls, we headed on the bus back to Bulawayo, where we stayed at our "luxurious hotel" as Amy called it, and it certainly was, considering the place we came from.  Our big attraction in Bulawayo was to go on a tour/safari of Matopos National Park.  We were told we were pretty much guaranteed to see rhinos and hippos, but apparently we were part of the 3% that didn't see rhinos.  We heard from a guard that there was a poacher in the park that supposedly frightened the hippos deep into the park.  Who knows.  What we do know is that if you are a poacher (or even outside of your car, as posted by a sign), you will shot on sight by a guard.  There's no messing around here.  We did see some hippos (from the comfort of our vehicle of course) however, and I only wish we could have watched them longer, seeing that we didn't come across many more animals on our journey (other than a few giraffes).  The scenery was beautiful, though, with granite hills and amazing balancing rocks.  Also worth the trip was viewing the ancient San (Bushmen) cave paintings.  Our tour guide was great, as well as our driver, and anxious to chat with us about American culture, leading with the question, "is American wrestling (as seen on TV) really real??"  At the end of our tour they took us to the "real" Bulawayo (the "ghetto" as they called it) to see how many other people live there. 

Our final stop in Zimbabwe was to head back to Harare, where we stayed just outside of the city right next to a quiet game park. For the most part it was quiet and I'm pretty sure we were the only guests staying there.  Lazarus, our cook, took special care of us and made us some very delicious meals that I already miss.  Our New Year's Eve celebration was pretty tame, consisting of the three of us drinking a bottle of champagne and going to bed at 10:00!  (The music was pumping outside until 5:30 am, however).  The next day we headed to the airport with our driver and hostel owner, who carted us local style...in the back of his pickup.  I was incredibly sad to have my sister heading home, and now that she's gone, it feels almost like a dream that she was even here!