I
had crossed the border into my final Southern African country: Zambia. I wouldn’t
be there for any big adventuring in particular; I had just booked a flight out
of the capital, and in between coming in from Zim and my flight, I had about a
week. I decided to split it between Livingstone, the town on the Zambian side
of Victoria Falls, and Lusaka, the capital.
So
after arriving into Zambia, I wandered down the road to where I hoped some
taxis would be waiting. I had one taxi guy following me around telling me I
could pay him $10 for the 10km from the border to the hostel. Nope. I just
laughed at him. That price is crazy talk around here. Instead, I got in a small
shared taxi, waited only a little while for the 3 other seats to fill up, and
made my way to the hostel for only $2. That’s more like it. I later realized
that I could have gotten a combi (minibus taxi) for $1. Oh well. Even when I was
sitting in the shared taxi, waiting for it to fill, the original taxi guy was
still hanging around asking me to take his taxi. I told him it would only be $2
for this shared taxi, and he replied that the shared taxi driver was lying.
Nope, dude, get over it. I’m not paying $10, end of story.
Mosi Oa Tunya and Zambezi streets
Chicken street art. I love it.
Also, while I was
wandering around or waiting to go, I again had several guys on the street trying
to sell me stuff. And again, more than money, they wanted to trade for a
carabiner or a bandana or whatever, because they can’t get anything like those
things where they live. Maybe if I even remotely wanted any of those crafty
things they were selling, it might be a good way to go.
I arrived at Lusaka
Backpackers and set up my tent in the yard ($7/night camping) among some huge
mango trees. I spent the rest of the day just chilling, relaxing after the
tiresome activity that is crossing a border and getting to a new location. They
had a great pool, and even a climbing wall right next to it. There were plenty
of cushioney places to sit, including an enormous pile of pillows and extra
chair cushions, which was great to sit in.
Livingstone Backpackers
Cool climbing wall
The next day, I
decided to take the hostel’s free shuttle to the Zambian side of Victoria
Falls. Since Victoria Falls and the Zambezi river lie in between Zim and Zam,
both sides have their own national park. In Zambia, the park is called Mosi Oa
Tunya, meaning smoke that thunders (referring to the mist and the crashing
sound of the falls). The hostel van dropped a small group of us off at the
entrance of the park. As I am used to doing, I asked for the SADC price as I
saw online, only to be told that they don’t do SADC prices, only Zambian and
international. Okay then. I shelled out $20 and gained entry to the park. As I
walked in, I passed by some stalls of craft vendors and was immediately asked
by one of the souvenir guys to trade my hair bands (ever present on my wrist)
or pens for his stuff. This charade again. I used my favorite lie, “I’ll come
back later…maybe…” and escaped into the main part of the park.
Once I got in, the
officials warned me about guys that will try to take tourists on unofficial
jaunts across the top of the falls and to Angel’s Pool, another edge-side pool
similar to Devil’s Pool. Sure enough, I was soon approached by guys offering
such a service. I declined, as I didn’t feel like dying that day. I had friends
do it, though, and they said it seemed a little sketchy, but it turned out
fine.
View from the top, before the water goes crashing down
View from one of the bridges
Yay Vic Falls!
The Zambia side of
the park was different because you got above-the-falls views in addition to
across-the-falls views, lots of mist, and you could even hike down to the river
to one of the first rapids that the rafts go through. As I walked down to that
rapid, called the Boiling Pot, I saw tons of monkeys all over the place,
sitting in the path, swinging in the vines, and running around the rocks and
the trees. I got super close to some of them a few times and they just sat
there as I walked by, indifferent to the passing human. At the bottom of the
path, I got a good view of the bridge and the bungee jumpers jumping off of it.
Just filling up...
Tiny bungee jumpers below the bridge
Indifferent monkey
Once I was tired of
wandering around the park, I walked through the two fancy hotels nearby. There
were marimba players by the pool and zebras grazing in the grass. Wow. Then I
walked to the road and got a hitch back to the backpackers as it started to
rain.
Zebras casually walking around the hotel grounds
I spent the
afternoon reading, napping, and eating ripe and sweet mangoes that had fallen
all over the hostel property. These mango trees were ridiculous. When I was
trying to fall asleep in my tent the first night, I heard a loud BANG! I thought
I’d been shot or something. Then I heard a soft plop in the grass next to me.
Turns out that a mango had fallen on the metal roof of one covered area and
rolled off the edge and into the grass. I got up and scooted my tent over in
the hopes of not getting mango-bombed. Even having done that, I still woke up
with mango goop dripped all over my tent. I have no idea how it got there, but
it was pretty funny shaking my fist up at the mango trees warning them not to
drip mango goo on my tent again. I arrived back at the hostel on the last day,
getting ready to pack up my tent, only to find that one of the split poles I
had duct taped back in Botswana had finally snapped, probably done in by one of
these falling mangoes. Oh well. Good thing I wouldn’t be needing my tent
anymore.
My tent in the back, mangoes littering the ground
Up next: I bus to
Lusaka and get ready to fly to Côte d’Ivoire!
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