Weekend in Livingstone

Lots of stuff to update today, in part because I've been very busy, and in part because it's been several days now since my last posting.

So last weekend I took my first real outing of my trip here. Amanda, Rebecca, and I went to Livingstone, which is the town on the Zambia side of Victoria Falls. Our bus ride there was excruciatingly long, over 8 hours, but we eventually arrived safely.

Saturday was our day for a walk in the park. Granted, the park had an enormous waterfall in the middle of it, but it was a walk in the park nonetheless. We started out on the Zambia side, which is well-known as the wetter side of the falls. After about 5 minutes of being there, I was drenched from head to ankle (my boots were waterproof, for what that was worth), and I didn't dry out completely until about dinner time that night. Still, the views of the falls were spectacular, and it was definitely amazing to see such a huge watery spectacle and lush vegetation in the middle of an arid country like Zambia. After seeing the falls from the front, we took a hike down to the Boiling Pot, slightly downstream of the falls, where you can get to ground level of the canyon carved by the falls to see the water swirl and bubble in this aptly named area.

After exploring pretty much the full Zambia side of the falls, we decided to get an extra passport stamp and some extra adventure, and we meandered on over to Zimbabwe. Yeah, that same Zimbabwe that's been in the news a lot lately. Victoria Falls on that side was clearly better designed to accomodate tourists, and yet-- not unexpectedly-- the town was desolate. We had a late lunch there, as the only people in the restaurant, and bought a few things from the market, at which we were the only customers. Zach (a soon-to-be medical student we joined up with for the day) brought some old t-shirts that he bartered along with money. Prices of goods were given in US dollars, Kwacha, and Rand ... pretty much anything except Zimbabwe dollars. I got myself a 50 million Zimdollar note, just as a souvenir. It expires at the end of the month. I would have gone for a billion-dollar note, but I didn't want to spend real money on it. It was pretty clear that the people in Vic Falls were coming close to desperation; sellers were almost begging us to even have a look at their products, and we were swarmed with a mix of sellers and actual beggars almost from the time we crossed over.

Next, we saw the falls from the Zimbabwe side, where I took both of the pitcures that I've posted from the riverbanks. True to its reputation, the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls does have the better view, since it has less water obscuring the view (the Zambia side was always somewhere between a drizzle and a downpour generated by the falls), and a longer section of land going in front.

Sunday was our adventure/risk-taking day. We started off with a package deal at the Gorge, which is an area a couple kilometers away from the falls, cut out by a previous incarnation of Victoria Falls. The bottom is dry, so it was probably easier to set up the things we had for activities. There was a rappelling wall, from which we had to hike back out, and a zip line across the gorge that everyone did. The highlight of that part, though, was the Gorge Swing, which has a 53 meter (~160 foot) complete free-fall, with its landing being a long swing above the treetops of the gorge. The man who went first on that one separated his bicep from having such a death-grip on the rope. I made sure to relax.

By that point it was early afternoon, and Amanda and I had priority #1 still to go for that day: bungee jumping off the Victoria Falls bridge. You know how your mother used to say, back when you were a kid and you gave in to peer pressure, "If all of your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you do it too?" You can tell your mother to come find me, because I was that idiot friend of yours jumping off the bridge first, no peer pressure needed. The video is attached to this entry, or should be at least.

Sunday night one of my travel companions, who shall remain nameless, had a run-in with the law. I had my own odd, though substantially less frightening interaction with them, earlier that day. I will only give details by phone or e-mail, not through blog posting.

Monday morning we went out to Livingstone Island, where David Livingstone first saw Victoria Falls. Since rainy season wasn't too long ago, the falls are roaring to both sides of the island, and the picture I posted is with us a few feet away from the cliff overhanging the falls themselves. Pretty neat piece of geography. We had a wonderful breakfast there, then spent the entire afternoon and evening on the long, slow bus ride home.

So that's my weekend in Livingstone. Tomorrow, I hope to have time to update about the week, and finally get myself caught up on blogging. That will be a separate entry, though, so until then, happy reading!

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