Day 12- Back to Malawi

July 19, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

This morning we got up and Meg, Holly and I went to go run some errands. We had breakfast at the hostel, they had hard boiled eggs! I was so excited. I haven’t been able to get hard boiled eggs here at all. This was exciting for me. We got a tuk-tuk and headed to buy bus tickets for later that day. We are getting a 12:00 bus to Mzuzu and we needed to buy our tickets. It was literally one woman sitting at a green plastic table in a parking stall of a parking lot. So bizarre. We bought our tickets, got in the tuk tuk and headed back to the Chitenje market to pick up our clothes we had made at the beginning! We went to the tailor, looked at them, and took them to Peace Corps to try them on. Holly had to get some medicine from her doctor as well, she had been feeling even more sore and worse than me. She grabbed her medicine and we all tried on all of the Chitenje for each other to figure out what we still needed to be fixed. I definitely need all my pants to be taken in in the leg, and one dress in at the waist. One of my other dresses was perfect! We love them so much. We got that all sorted out and decided that Holly was going to go back to the hostel (she really was not feeling well) and Meg and I were gonna drop the clothes back off at the tailor to get fixed while we were gone.

We dropped off Holly and got to the market. Meg and I went in, dropped it off, I bought another 2 meters to use for a cork board at school, and Holly called asking where we were. We jumped back in the tuk tuk, got two more tuk tuks and went back to Crown, the hostel. Meg and I got there, grabbed our bags, as everyone was also checking out, and we got in the tuk tuks and headed to the bus. We got the bus and there were so many people! Bec and Holly ran to the store to grab snacks (as our lunch) and the rest of us loaded the bus up and got seats. Every seat was packed and they were tiny seats. We all were sitting pretty separate from each other. I was in an aisle seat, next to some old man.

This was the longest bus ride, ever. Sitting cramped with this stiff neck/back was the absolute worst. We left at noon and did not arrive to Mzuzu until 5:30. We finally got to Mzuzu and got a taxi to Joys, the hostel we were staying at. Holly was not having life at this point and started bartering with the taxi drivers who wanted us to pay way too much, and eventually she just gave up and we got in one and went. Joys was cute and they had so many dogs! All the cute dogs to play with. We put our stuff down and walked to Umunthu, another hostel to have dinner. Everyone says it is the best dinner. And oh my god, it was. Another Peace Corps volunteer was there, uh….. Brimble I think his name was. His last name. With one of his friends, Ben, who is originally from Seattle but has currently been a journalist the last four years in Israel. We all grabbed beers, ordered food, and started playing Phase 10.

Oh my gosh. When we asked Brimble and Ben if they wanted to play Phase 10, Ben responded very strongly and was like “I hate phase 10! I tried to avoid it at all costs” and everyone was clearly thinking like…”Whoa dude…just a game” Brimble then asked about the game, finally realizing it was a card game. Turns out, Brimble and Ben thought we said FACE TIME. We all started busting up. Asking Brimble, what did he think we were going to do, FaceTime each other and turn our backs and talk??? Like what?? We were dying. Ben said he definitely heard FaceTime too- and of course we inquired as to why someone could have such strong feelings about hating FaceTime. We died. Then we taught them Phase 10 and played during food and drinks. Holly and I had the best dinner. We split a three cheese peppaew, salad, and fries. It tasted like the best thing we have eaten this entire trip. It was amazing.

We played late into the night, finally all of us walking back to Joys and Brimble and Ben heading to wherever they were staying. We got back, I blogged for a bit, and then everyone crashed.

Day 11- Zambia

July 19, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

This morning we got up as planned for our morning drive. We went and had breakfast, which was even more delicious. During breakfast, a server came to us and told us our safari driver was in the back. We were confused. Then we realized it must have been Mophy. Holly. Immediately asked our server, who was lovely, to get his manager because he wants to talk to him. We finish breakfast, head out front, only to find the manager out there with a man we don’t recognize. Apparently, Mophy had hired a driver to come pick us up. The manager of Croc Valley was not having it. He told the driver to call Mophy, which he did, and the driver gave the manager the phone. He told Mophy that we were not getting into the car with his driver, but getting into their car and that we would be back and 10 and that Mophy can meet us then. They hung up.

Apparently Mophy has done this many times before, dropped people off late at night and then picked them up very early and not paid. The manager told us he got us a private car and we got in. Our drivers name was Akim and he too, was just as fabulous as Simon. We headed out, with Bec and Mitch singing some Lion King tunes to keep us awake. The Lion Sleeps Tonight to be exact. It was too early for any of us to be awake, so we found this very entertaining.

Guess what we saw first? Elephants! More beautiful elephants. Only one of them was missing a tusk. Akim believes this is probably a result of just fighting to break food off and eat it, the tusk got worn down and broke. We saw loads more of impalas. It was amazing to watch Akim and his tracking skills. Things I know but did not think about. He was watching where vultures were circling in the sky, watching the way impalas were moving and jumping, and following prints on the ground. We were driving and all of the sudden Akim jeers to the right and speeds up. He says that there must be a leopard on the other side of the flatland. When we asked how he could tell (as the impala were standing still-it appeared) and he said that though the impala were not moving, the impalas that who were essentially the scouts (so only a few of them) were jumping up and down. This is how the impala alert the others that there is a predator near. We raced over and low and behold- we found a leopard! It was so incredibly fun. We followed her around. He told us that this particular leopard was a daughter of Alice- one of the parks oldest leopards, who had passed away. We followed her around for a bit, seeing if we could watch where she goes. We drove around for a bit, saw more of the variety of birds the park is home to, and drove by some of the whitest of white people on a safari. I too a photo of them because it made me laugh. THEN came across the most RANCID stench of all time.

The hippo carcass!

The very one we saw the night before. We could smell it this morning and it was AWFUL. We pull up to so many cars and finally get a look. There are about 10 lions around and eating this hippo carcass. It was insane! Two male lions and probably about 6-8 female lions. Eating, laying around sleeping, just in and around this hippo. It was gross and amazing all at the same time. We stayed there for a while, watching all of this go down. I had my binoculars out so we could all get an even closer view.

We left the lions to see another elephant, more impalas, and lots of zebras and hippos. We had a blast with Akim. We asked him loads of questions about his job, his time in Zambia, and animals. He was insanely knowledgeable about the wildlife present in the park. He told us his family was part of the tribes that were indigenous to the lands that now cover the national park. Back in the 30’s I think he said, there was a bad case of leprosy throughout the area so people began to leave. Eventually, they cleared everyone out and decided to declare the area a national park to preserve the animal life. He has spent his whole life around the animals and has been a guide for the park since the 90’s. He loves his job. We stopped to have tea and biscuits again, this time with just a view of the river and some elephant bones, which is where he shared all of this.

We left the park and on our way back turning onto the road to our hostel, a truck with POLICE written on it turned in front of us. We knew this had to do with Mophy. We arrived back to see the manager and Mophy sitting at a table. We see the police walk up and now there are alike 6 people from the police department, Mophy, and the manager. We walked up hesitant, to say the least. The manager told us to wait and he would be with us. Meg went to the bathroom, Holly and Bec went to go put things down, Mitch and I decided to play pool on the tiniest pool table of all time. Of all time, because it looks like instead of making a standard size pool table, they made one suitable for kids, but are using it for adults. We had to hunch over far, which was not fun with my stiff neck I have had for two days now. Poor Mitch was leaning all the way over. I lost, hard. The billiard balls were awful and the table was off balance! Lol! When Holly and Bec walked away, we all saw across the pool where they were headed, Axon! They stopped to talk to him for a while. Mitch and I also ran back to the rooms only to find giraffes near our site in the distance!

The manager called us over and asked us to say what we needed to Mophy. Holly went off. She gave this great first speech that I wanted applaud afterwards. She basically just told Mophy about how he was screwing us over, taking our money, taking advantage of this place, these people, us, etc. Mophy at first tried to talk and started with “No, no, you see” and Holly was like “Don’t tell me no! You can’t tell me I don’t feel how I feel” and went off again. Mophy was quiet. The manager and all the police deceives sitting around were quiet and just looking around, away, anywhere but at Mophy and Holly. Ultimately, Holly told him she did not feel comfortable driving in a car with him and did not want to see him anymore. She explained we wound find our own transport back to Malawi. Bec went off on him asking about our park entrance fees that he stole and did not actually pay for. It was intense. Overall, Holly told Mophy to go away, literally, and that she did not want to see him ever again.

From there we began trying to figure out our own transport and cost. Ultimately, we actually ended up asking Axon if HE would drive us all the way to Lilongwe, but not with Mophy. We agreed on a price, that was cheaper than a car, and got in. Axon drove us all the way. The only time we were nervous was getting back into Malawi. Apparently sometimes the health inspector checks for the Yellow Fever vaccine, which I did not have. When I looked online it said “If you are coming from a country that has yellow fever, you will need proof of a vaccine. This excludes residents from the United States” so I did not think I would need it. That would have been accurate, if I was entering Malawi from the U.S. this time. I was entering it from Zambia, which means technically, I would have needed that vaccine. Whoops. But it was fine, there was no health inspector there that day, and we moved along. More car rides! It was not actually as far. Maybe four hours total.

We got to Lilongwe, checked into our hostel, and decided to get some Chinese food. Holly realized that one of her Peace Corps friends was staying in the same hostel (actually a few doors down). We all called Bonaface again, squeezed into the car and went to the restaurant. Next to this restaurant was a karaoke spot where you can pay to rent a room. If you have ever done karaoke in Koreatown, it’s kind of like that. We rented this room AND had our food brought to it. It was a total flipping blast. We sang all kinds of random music. The worker even told us that he has one song he likes to sing and sang it for us. He sang “London Bridge is Falling Down” which cracked me up. It was honestly the LAST song I ever expected this guy to sing. I wasn’t even sure I knew all the words to this song and was impressed that he did. We ate, sang, and laughed. Cleaned up and walked back to the hostel. We even saw a prostitute. To bed we all went.

Day 10- South Luangwa, Zambia (Start of Safari!)

July 10, 2017March 13, 2019Leave a comment

We woke up at 4:30-5:00 this morning. Breakfast was at 5:30am and our safari truck was leaving at 6:00. We were so excited! Bec came up to our door and jumped making a loud sound which scared the crap out of us. Mitch and Bec we’re staying in a different chalet because they only sleep three. That part was a bummer. But the chalet’s are super cool and spacious, so everyone was perfectly okay with the split.

Anyways, we go to breakfast, eat cereal and toast, and walk out to the car park where we will meet our guide. A Land Rover with tiered seating pulls up and we climb in with our guide, Simon. Two others are with us, Sara and Julian. It was freezing cold and we were all pretty much bundled up. Before we even got into the park, we saw an elephant! We get to the National Park entrance, provide our names and head in. Immediately over a bridge we see an elephant that is eating its breakfast! It was pretty far away, but still awesome!

The drive was four hours and SO FREAKING COOL! Our guide was AMAZING! Simon would do his best to show us everything and get as close as we could while being safe. He even spotted a leopard in a tree, which was cool. I wish the photo was clear enough for you all to see. We saw hippos, TONS of impala, birds, and heaps of elephants! The coolest part of this morning drive was when Simon stopped and pointed out in the distance two lions. They were not with the rest of the pride. Simon explained that these two lions were separating themselves for mating purposes. Apparently, when mating, lions separate themselves from the pride, and mate 3-4 times an hour, every hour, for 24 hours, for a week.

That was a fun fact.

We asked if we could get closer and he took us! It was unbelievable how freaking close to these lions we were. I could not believe it! Most of what we get about lions and wild animals is from movies and television shows, so naturally, in my head, this lion wants to eat me. Definitely not the case. We hung out with the two of them for a bit while they napped and eventually moved on.

After that we saw some Zebras and then took a break for tea. We drove and stopped under a tree, surrounded by tons of Impalas and had biscuits, tea, and coffee. Afterwards, we continued on the drive to see more Zebra and hippos. At 10 our morning drive ended and everyone was pretty stoked on the lions we saw.

We headed back to the hostel, Croc Valley, and relaxed for a bit in the hammocks. Everyone had lunch, read, napped, showered, and just took it easy. We ended up by the bar, having some beers and playing Phase 10 with Sarah and Julian. At 3:50 a waiter came and told us we had tea, biscuits, and coffee waiting for us AGAIN in the dining area. We had no idea and our night game ride was leaving at 4:00. Holly and I raced over, grabbed tea for ourselves and biscuits for everyone else, and booked it back to the car park to catch our next ride.

All of us got in the car and headed back to the park, still with Simon! When we got to the park to go in, the guards stopped us stating that the five of us did not pay our park entrance fees. We told them we gave our fees to Mophy, who was suppose to have paid them, so we did not have to stop. The guards already knew who Mophy was. They said they received word that Mophy would bring the park fees at 11:00, but he never did. The guards said they had been trying to call him all day and was not answering. OF COURSE. We were so annoyed but too excited about our drive. We paid the fees and headed in.

Immediately Simon pointed to tree and spotted the same leopard in the same tree, only this time he was eating a baboon! We watched that for a bit. It was intense, listening to the bones break and everything. We drove around for a bit, waiting for the animals to come out and do something. We came across an entire open field of giraffes! It was so beautiful. I cannot even begin to tell you. Giraffes are so timid, so it was hard to get close to any of them without them moving out of the way. It was here we paused for a break and had some juice and popcorn. Yup! I ate popcorn with giraffes! It was unbelievable. The sun was really beginning to set at this point and we jumped back in the cruiser and ended up really close to one particular giraffe! Simon explained that this one male giraffe (you can tell by how dark their spots are) was looking for a female. But this particular female was already is a group with another male. This male giraffe was following them, but avoiding getting too close, for fear of having to fight the other male. The other male was protective of the female and did not want her to get stolen away, so was guarding her and her baby a lot. Because this giraffe did not want to get too close to them, it ended up standing right next to the road we drove on to get to the rest of the park. It was amazing to be that close!

After the giraffes, that is when things started happening and getting intense. It was dark now and we came down a road only to hear and ultimately see, hyenas! There were tons of them in the road and on the side. When the guide used the spotlight to see, we saw that there was a dead hippo. Nothing killed the hippo, it just knew it was going to die and separated itself on its own accord to die. The hyenas found it first. We were watching this when all of the sudden out of nowhere, TWO female lions come out of the bush to scare the hyenas off. Everyone was ecstatic! We were SO close! We were watching the hyenas run off, the female lions fight to take over the hippo. Next thing we know, out in front of us, a hyena bolts across the road followed by this lioness right after him! Right in front of our car! It happened so fast. Everyone then watched the second female claim the hippo.

At this point, I was nervous. We just watched a lion run across the road in front of us, into the shrubs on the left, and EVERYONE in the car was turned to the right looking at the second lion guarding the hippo. I was convinced the first female lion was going to jump out and attack all of us while our backs were turned. She didn’t. But eventually she joined up with the other female and the two of them just laid in the road, in front of where the hippo was. Guarding it, and each other. It was amazing to watch. Again, could not believe how freaking close we were to these lions.

As if the lions and hyenas fighting over a hippo carcass wasn’t cool enough, we then came upon a hyena and a leopard fighting over a warthog carcass. First we saw the hyena, just ripping apart this poor warthog, having dinner. The hyena was very alert and when trying to figure out why, that is when we saw the leopard. Simon explained that was probably happened was the leopard was probably the one to kill the warthog, only to have it stolen by the hyena. Leopards do not travel in any sort of pack or group, so when it comes to fighting for food, they tend to flee rather than fight. This is because if the leopard gets hurt, it’s on its own and has no defenses. That is why it was so easy for the hyena to steal her kill. She wast going to give up though. We followed and watched both of them. We watched the leopard try to sneak back around, only to be chased off again. We watched her sneak back again, only to lay down nearby and watch the hyena eat. As the hyena was done, he took a big portion with him and walked away. When he got about 1,000 feet, the leopard got up and walked over to grab some more of the warthog carcass. Next thing you know, this hyena comes sprinting back towards the leopard and the leopard bolts, holding her share of the warthog. This time the leopard makes it, she gets her bit and gets up in a tree before the hyena can get to her. This made all of us happy. We wanted the leopard to win- it was her kill!

We were SO pumped after this drive. It was truly a once in a life time experience and so fantastic to see in real life! We got back to Croc Valley and had dinner. We ran into the receptionist who had to deal with us and the whole Mophy thing the previous night. We told her what happened and she told us that she talked to Herbert (the guy Mophy said he booked it with) and Herbert said Mophy never booked our stay. AND Mophy had not paid them. AND apparently owes this place a lot of money.

Awesome. We all slightly panicked a bit. Mophy had our money and this place we were staying at was all inclusive. We knew it was going to be expensive if we had to pay. The woman wanted us to talk to her manager to explain what happened. Holly sat down with this guy, who has got to be one of the kindest, most understanding humans in the world. Him and Holly talked for a while and he knew that none of this was our fault. That Mophy had done this to them many a time. He asked what time Mophy was coming to pick us up the next morning. We told him we had no idea (as we hadn’t heard from Mophy). The manager told us to just wake up, have breakfast, and do another morning game drive, on them. For free. He was going to let us have another game drive. All we had to do was pay the park entrance fee. He told Holly he was going to have the police be there in the morning for when Mophy arrived so everyone could talk. This was getting insane. But I cannot begin to explain how hospitable and amazing the employees at Croc Valley were. If you ever find yourself in Zambia, it truly is the place to stay. With a plan for the morning, we all headed to bed. As we walked to our rooms hippos were right outside of our room! Crossing the road between our chalet and Bec and Mitch’s. SO FREAKING COOL.

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The Wandering Sandals

To live will be an awfully big adventure.

Tag: gazelle

Day 12- Back to Malawi

Day 11- Zambia

Day 10- South Luangwa, Zambia (Start of Safari!)