Today we got up in Livingstone, packed our things and went down to the lobby to wait for our ride. We are going to Victoria Falls today! Sitting in the lobby, we got coffee which turns out is not actually coffee, it is Ricoffy, which is coffee without caffeine. It was awful and made my heart sad. Mophie picked us up and wanted us to finish paying for our transport, but we could not because did not have anymore Zambian Kwatcha. We asked him to take us to an ATM to get cash.
Little did we know that this was going to be the biggest ordeal. We get to what Mophy says is the only ATM in town. The line for the ATM is ridiculously long. Mitch and Bec were also trying to get their hands on some American currency so that they could pay for activities in Zimbabwe (who mostly uses the USD). Meg, Bec, and Mitch decided to go inside the bank and see if that line was shorter and if they could get some U.S. currency. These lines took a really long time. Holly and I stood at the outside ATM talking for a while and eventually began talking to the man in front of us in line. Turns out he is from South Africa and part of a 140 car rally that is driving all over parts of Africa donating shoes to various places. People join this car rally from all over the world and they have various rest stops along the way and they had just had one the previous night in Zambia. Eventually it is our turn, we get up to the ATM, pull our cash and decide we will go to the Shoprite to buy more water and grab coffee for everyone while they are inside. As we are about to go into the Shoprite, we see the other three coming out of the bank. Assuming they are done, we grab our water and start to get in line. They come find us in the Shoprite only to tell us that they waited that whole time, at least a half hour, and the power went out in the bank. They waited out the power outage and when the lights turned back on, it was Mitchell’s turn to deal with the teller. He asked if he could pull out USD, the teller told him he could not, only exchange currency. Mitchell asked if he could pull out Zimbabwean currency, the teller told him he could not. When Mitchell asked what his options were, the teller told him he needed to go pull money out of the ATM outside and come back in to exchange it.
Holy cow was everyone not having this. We finally left the hotel at 9:30 to go across the street for this ATM and it has now been over an hour and we still had not technically done anything. Holly and I felt so bad for them. As they had been telling us this, Holly and I had gotten in and were STILL standing in line waiting to buy more water. The market was packed and not moving quickly. We told them that if they got in the ATM line, all of us would probably be done at the same time, as our line was not moving quickly. Holly and I waited forever. FOR. EVER. And finally bought our water and some Doritos that were sour cream and mild chili flavored. We take the water, go next door into the cafe, order three coffees and next thing we know, Mitch, Meg, and Bec are back. We were excited, exclaiming how fast it went, only to find out that they STILL did not have any money. They waited in line at the ATM, a woman went up to the ATM, touched the screen, and a sign popped up saying “This ATM is closed, please go inside”
The ATM had run out of money. They could not get any money.
We felt SO BAD! But we were able to give coffee to them. At this point, everyone was pretty frustrated and just decided to go back to the car to tell Mophy we wanted to either go to a different ATM or get money in Zimbabwe. The problem with getting cash in Zimbabwe is that apparently Zimbabwe, because the mostly use USD and do not print any USD, was having an economical crisis in regards to how much currency they were currently circulating. Long in the short of it, ATMs were not to be trusted. Only paying with actual Visas.
We trek back to the car, it is way later than we wanted to start our day with and tell Mophy what is happening. At this point, he decides to share that there is another ATM and he will take us to it.
That ATM took them 3 minutes to get money. GAHHHHHHH!!!!!! WHY WAS THIS NOT THE FIRST ATM?!!? Sooooooooo frustrating!
But, we did it. We got money. We got coffee. We had snacks. We finally left. I made a mess of myself at this point. My coffee was dripping and spilled onto my shirt AND I had dropped some chocolate of Meg’s that I was trying onto my shirt as well. I looked like a mess. Everyone was having a really good time. Like, probably the best day we have had on this trip so far.
Finally, we were on our way. We drove to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side and everyone perked right up! We pulled in, handed Mophy our passports so he could go check us in and pay, and waited to go in. In this time waiting, we saw TONS of baboons. TONS of them. Everywhere, around the parking lot. Walking around casually. Mitchell went and tried to sit next tone that was under a tree. While this was entertaining, it was also very sketchy, as baboons are not exactly the friendliest of animals. They wont bother you if you are just walking by, typically, but they can really mess things up and be very aggressive. We also saw them climbing all over cars. We even saw one climb across one car to get to another car to check if it was unlocked! I kid you not, we watched this baboon pull on this cars door handles to see if they would open and knock on the window to see if it was rolled down. It was insane to see happen! Smart animals. Mophy came back with our passports and then.. FINALLY!
Little did we know that this was going to be the biggest ordeal. We get to what Mophy says is the only ATM in town. The line for the ATM is ridiculously long. Mitch and Bec were also trying to get their hands on some American currency so that they could pay for activities in Zimbabwe (who mostly uses the USD). Meg, Bec, and Mitch decided to go inside the bank and see if that line was shorter and if they could get some U.S. currency. These lines took a really long time. Holly and I stood at the outside ATM talking for a while and eventually began talking to the man in front of us in line. Turns out he is from South Africa and part of a 140 car rally that is driving all over parts of Africa donating shoes to various places. People join this car rally from all over the world and they have various rest stops along the way and they had just had one the previous night in Zambia. Eventually it is our turn, we get up to the ATM, pull our cash and decide we will go to the Shoprite to buy more water and grab coffee for everyone while they are inside. As we are about to go into the Shoprite, we see the other three coming out of the bank. Assuming they are done, we grab our water and start to get in line. They come find us in the Shoprite only to tell us that they waited that whole time, at least a half hour, and the power went out in the bank. They waited out the power outage and when the lights turned back on, it was Mitchell’s turn to deal with the teller. He asked if he could pull out USD, the teller told him he could not, only exchange currency. Mitchell asked if he could pull out Zimbabwean currency, the teller told him he could not. When Mitchell asked what his options were, the teller told him he needed to go pull money out of the ATM outside and come back in to exchange it.
Holy cow was everyone not having this. We finally left the hotel at 9:30 to go across the street for this ATM and it has now been over an hour and we still had not technically done anything. Holly and I felt so bad for them. As they had been telling us this, Holly and I had gotten in and were STILL standing in line waiting to buy more water. The market was packed and not moving quickly. We told them that if they got in the ATM line, all of us would probably be done at the same time, as our line was not moving quickly. Holly and I waited forever. FOR. EVER. And finally bought our water and some Doritos that were sour cream and mild chili flavored. We take the water, go next door into the cafe, order three coffees and next thing we know, Mitch, Meg, and Bec are back. We were excited, exclaiming how fast it went, only to find out that they STILL did not have any money. They waited in line at the ATM, a woman went up to the ATM, touched the screen, and a sign popped up saying “This ATM is closed, please go inside”
The ATM had run out of money. They could not get any money.
We felt SO BAD! But we were able to give coffee to them. At this point, everyone was pretty frustrated and just decided to go back to the car to tell Mophy we wanted to either go to a different ATM or get money in Zimbabwe. The problem with getting cash in Zimbabwe is that apparently Zimbabwe, because the mostly use USD and do not print any USD, was having an economical crisis in regards to how much currency they were currently circulating. Long in the short of it, ATMs were not to be trusted. Only paying with actual Visas.
We trek back to the car, it is way later than we wanted to start our day with and tell Mophy what is happening. At this point, he decides to share that there is another ATM and he will take us to it.
That ATM took them 3 minutes to get money. GAHHHHHHH!!!!!! WHY WAS THIS NOT THE FIRST ATM?!!? Sooooooooo frustrating!
But, we did it. We got money. We got coffee. We had snacks. We finally left. I made a mess of myself at this point. My coffee was dripping and spilled onto my shirt AND I had dropped some chocolate of Meg’s that I was trying onto my shirt as well. I looked like a mess. Everyone was having a really good time. Like, probably the best day we have had on this trip so far.
Finally, we were on our way. We drove to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side and everyone perked right up! We pulled in, handed Mophy our passports so he could go check us in and pay, and waited to go in. In this time waiting, we saw TONS of baboons. TONS of them. Everywhere, around the parking lot. Walking around casually. Mitchell went and tried to sit next tone that was under a tree. While this was entertaining, it was also very sketchy, as baboons are not exactly the friendliest of animals. They wont bother you if you are just walking by, typically, but they can really mess things up and be very aggressive. We also saw them climbing all over cars. We even saw one climb across one car to get to another car to check if it was unlocked! I kid you not, we watched this baboon pull on this cars door handles to see if they would open and knock on the window to see if it was rolled down. It was insane to see happen! Smart animals. Mophy came back with our passports and then.. FINALLY!
We started to head into see Victoria Falls from the Zambia side! We stopped to buy rain ponchos from the curio shops for 10 kwatcha. I almost brought my raincoat on this trip but decided not to because it is not the rain season. Never mind the part where I am going to stand next to a 360 foot tall and. 5,600 foot wide waterfall. Nah, I wont get wet.
We got our ponchos, headed in and I cannot even begin to describe how absolutely blown away we were. I cannot believe that this waterfall is real. It just absolutely blows my mind what nature creates. I think all of us were just blown away by its beauty. We had so much fun walking along the provided paths to the different lookouts along the waterfall. Getting absolutely soaked the whole time. Head to toe. The ponchos were a great investment. The water dropping off of the falls and splashing into the bottom of the gorge created a raining effect for those of us on land. We had to cross a bridge at one point, where we could see the Victoria Falls bridge, and I swear it was like being caught in a really bad rainstorm. One person described it as going through a car wash in a convertible with the top down. But wow, it is so absolutely worth it. It is jaw dropping. See for yourself.
We got our ponchos, headed in and I cannot even begin to describe how absolutely blown away we were. I cannot believe that this waterfall is real. It just absolutely blows my mind what nature creates. I think all of us were just blown away by its beauty. We had so much fun walking along the provided paths to the different lookouts along the waterfall. Getting absolutely soaked the whole time. Head to toe. The ponchos were a great investment. The water dropping off of the falls and splashing into the bottom of the gorge created a raining effect for those of us on land. We had to cross a bridge at one point, where we could see the Victoria Falls bridge, and I swear it was like being caught in a really bad rainstorm. One person described it as going through a car wash in a convertible with the top down. But wow, it is so absolutely worth it. It is jaw dropping. See for yourself.
After this, our rough start of a morning was so far behind us. We were having too much fun. Eventually, we began the walk back out. During this walk, we saw a sign for a World War 1 memorial and decided we wanted to follow the path to see it. As we followed it, it started turning a direction that did not appear like it was going anywhere. We were following the path and found ourselves walking near many a baboon. Lots of baboons and babies. We decided we were just going to turn around and walk back, as this did not seem like it was going anywhere. As we turned around, two guys who were also guests in the park, walking towards us, one of them eating a snack. Faster than I can even imagine, a baboon came out of nowhere approached him and snatched the snack/food straight out of his hands. He jumped back and began to run from the baboon towards us. This scared Holly, who turned and began to run too- straight into me. Now, we all know that if you run from a predator, it’s going to chase you. So what did the baboon do? Began to chase them. Everyone immediately was telling them to stop running, trying to explain that running will only make it worse. It was insane! A scary moment. We all just wanted to walk back and leave the park at this point. We go to walk and of course a baboon who was just part of this whole escapades is sitting in the walkway, eating his snack, with a baby on his back. No one wanted to walk past him. But we did, calmly, and it was absolutely fine. But, nerve racking for a moment there.
We left the falls, drove across the Victoria Falls bridge, which is built over the Zambezi river and the second gorge of the falls. We get to the Zambia/Zimbabwe border and start this process all over again. We get out, pay, get our visas and get our bags. The car we were in was not coming across the border with us to Zimbabwe. Mophy and his assistant Axon, were going to walk with us to the hostel. Mophy said his phone said it was about 1 kilometer away, so a little over half a mile. Backpacks on, bags in hand, we began the track. We definitely walked over 1Km before Mophy had enough. We got two cabs. We threw the stuff in and got a lift to the hostel. In the cab, Axon was mumbling about how this was way more than 1Km away and it made me laugh. We got to the hostel and it is SO cute! The whole set up is adorable. Holly had been given a recommendation to stay here and we are so glad we are. They have a live in Maltese named Rosie who is the absolute sweetest. It has hammocks, swings, a lovely pool, table, and cute signs everywhere. And jumbo chess! We got here, unloaded, and decided to get dinner. Holly had been told a place called The Three Monkeys was a great place to go, so off we went! It was a very westernized restaurant for sure, but was so cute! We ordered food, beer, and played some more cards while we waited. We played asshole again and this time Holly definitely used her powers as President. She had Mitch walk around the entire patio of the restaurant while saying “I’m probably the tallest man in the world” over and over. Too funny. It was all in good fun. Once we got our food, we devoured it. Meg ordered sliders which came with three different meats. One was Crocodile, one was Impala, and one was Beef. I tried both the crocodile and the impala. Added more weird food to my list! Now I have eaten crocodile and alligator. Both the crocodile and Impala were good- but I definitely liked the crocodile more. We ate, we drank, we left. We headed home and crashed.
The Wandering Sandals 