Partying it up

17/5/13

One of the things I am absolutely loving about the last few legs of this journey has been meeting so many awesome people.  We met a few of Australians and Brits in Malawi who are travelling in the same general direction as us, as well as two Israeli men and a German woman in Lilongwe, so our general posse by the time we got to Livingstone was pretty huge!  It’s awesome.  Some volunteering, others taking a gap year, others working as journalists and pilots, still others just travelling around for months at a time just because they can.  We have a great time!

To celebrate our last night of travel last night, we went to a super fancy hotel with zebras in the yard that overlooks the top of the Falls to see the sunset.  It was breathtaking.  Seeing the spray coming up from the falls as the sun sets next to it. Wow.

Then we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. Holy goodness gracious. Indian food should be in my life all of the time.  It was delicious!! Spicy, warm, filling, perfectly blended flavors. 

Back at Jolly Boys, the party was just getting started with the rest of our group, and we went out on the town for one last hurrah.  Overall, this trip has been inspiring, exhausting, magnificent, and friend-filled.  But I am looking forward to getting back to teaching.  After all, that’s what I came here for.

Victoria Falls

15/5/13

And the ride was good… very long, but Mailin and I had comfortable seats, not the fold out ones that go in the aisle, so we were fine.  We got into Livingstone at around 10:30 last night, and were asked if we wanted a taxi for 50 Zambian Kwatcha (10USD).  Yeah right, buddy. How about 10 Kwatcha, eh? Yeah. That’s what I thought.

We arrived at Jolly Boys Backpacker, and were almost immediately greeted by 5 Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs—they love acronyms) from the Kavango and Caprivi Regions in Namibia.  Friends! Yay! But we didn’t stay up to play after the long travel, and went straight to bed. 

The next morning all of the PCVs showed us the free shuttle to the Falls, and we wrapped our wallets and a camera in plastic and headed on over to one of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World. 

Name. Earned.  The water was just thundering over the Falls.  In many places, the mist was so thick that you couldn’t see anything around you and it was like you were swimming in the air.  We hiked around the falls to get the view from every angle in Zambia.  There was a spot down at the bottom where the two gorges meet just downstream of the Falls called the boiling pot. From there you can look up to the Falls and see the bridge where people bungee jump, swing down from and zip line across.  Then we (rather sweatily) hiked back up to the top of the gorge and walked across the bridge to an island.  This was where we got soaked over and over. It was unbelievable! Once we had covered the ground on the island, we headed back over to the main land and found a path to a spot directly at the top of the Falls.  We were close enough to dip our feet it (don’t worry, mom, I didn’t). 

Finally, we got hungry for lunch, so we decided to head back to town. It’s a bad idea to eat at the falls because of all of the baboons will attack you for food.  Even if you put you cameras or whatever into a grocery bag, the baboons are smart enough to know—that means food.  Clear bags are the way to go for your valuables. 

Mailin, two English boys on gap year whom we met at the falls, and I had a hankering for pizza.  Perfect! I saw a pizza place on the way back from the Falls.  Totally walkable distance.  45 minutes-1 hour later, we finally arrived.  OK, my bad. Maybe not such a walkable distance.  But it made the pizza that much more delicious.  And made us feel less guilty about the ice cream. 

Abby and Erika are arriving tonight, so our whole party will be reunited! I think that calls for a party!!

Carl jumped off that bridge! (attached to a bungee cord of course!)

One of the Seven Wonders of the Natural World

Carl (UK), Hector (New Zealand), Abby (WorldTeach Namibia/USA)

The view from the top

There's a bridge through the mist--it's like walking through... a waterfall.

Spray rising up from the falls at sunset.

Travel Travel Travel Part Two

14/5/13  

We made it to Lilongwe, the capitol of Malawi in another long (longer than it should have been thanks to slow slow buses) day of travel, and spent the night at a pretty nice hostel, before waking up early to catch buses to Chipata in Zambia.  The bus from Chipata to the border was thrilling.  A bag of fish the size of a nine year old child was on the lap of the man behind Mailin and me, and little dried fish kept falling in our laps, in our bags, and in our hair.  It smelled awesome. 

We made it to Chipata in pretty good time, and Abby and Erilka arranged to head out to South Luangwa National Park for a game drive to see big cats, while Mailin and I stayed in Chipata to push ahead to Victoria Falls.  We got onto the bus from Chipata to Lusaka at 5 am this morning.  Luckily, we were able to sleep until almost 8 am. At around 9, they changed Christian music videos for a movie. Great! A way to stay busy for the next few hours.  They played Taken. Just what young ladies want to watch while travelling.  Thank goodness I can rest easy knowing Alex will “go all Liam Neesan if anything happens to me.” What a great bro.

We just arrived in Lusaka around 11:30 and now we’ve got a ten hour bus ride ahead of us out to Victoria Falls.  This bus is hilarious.  Faux red tiles on the floor, velour seats in burnt orange with lava lamp patterns shaved out, sea green curtains, flower print, cream colored ceiling, plastic covers over the lights with very fancy crystal-like etching. It’s like the late 70s blew up on this bus. 

Also, I’m wearing a shirt I bought for the Barcelona Football Club.  Everyone coming onto the bus to sell food and cheap goods while we wait in the station keeps calling me Barca and trying to get me to buy Barcelona watches.

Totally African moment: One of the men selling biltong—delicious beef jerkey—celebrated Ronny’s 50^th birthday on National Pig Day.  I know this because the back of his shirt has a cake on the back that says so.

This is going to be a good ride. 

11/5/13 Lake Malawi: Monkey Bay and Cape Maclear

                Words cannot describe how much better our time in Malawi got, nor can they describe how much I love Lake Malawi.  I’m going to try, but I may have to get some help from Abby, who has offered to write my blog entry of adoration to Lake Malawi, Monkey Bay and Cape Maclear.

                Monkey Bay is a beautiful, secluded area with tons of rocks and islands to explore and wave to Mozambique from, tons of monkeys, tons of trees to sit under, and tons of perfect water to swim in. Cape Maclear is 12 km away and is a bustling tourist village with many local fishermen and guides and kids (half of the Malawian population was under 15 in 2011).  We boated out to an island, snorkeled with cichlids, fed fish eagles and ate a fresh fish braai on an island.  GREAT day! On our drive out of town (which came way too soon) we saw all of the goings-on about the village. Carpenters, clinics, schools, volunteer organizations. A super bumpin’ village. 

                We stayed at two backpacker hostels which were both owned by the same man, and he was super chilled out.  He got us the really cheap boating trip, and was really generous about giving us little “sachets” of rum... Think… ketchup packets. Hilarious. And his son, who is 10, and I went on adventures all over both Monkey Bay and the Cape.  That kid was awesome.  He speaks three languages fluently, and is really adventurous and curious and imaginative.  I had such a great time meeting and playing with him! I feel like we didn’t stay nearly long enough!

               This doesn't even begin to explain the current love affair I am having with Lake Malawi, so I'll probably turn over the keys to Abby in just a bit!

               We're heading back through Zambia over the next two days, and then Victoria Falls, to get home! Fun ride so far!

The four travelers from the top of a hill overlooking the lake

He wanted a beer

The view from the hostel at Monkey Bay

The view from Cape Maclear

The beach at Cape Maclear

Looking down the beach front

Mufasa Beach Bar

Mancala-like game. I got pretty good!

Kids love having their picture taken just about world-wide!

Mcee D's is taking over the world!!

Delicious fruit for sale on the streets of Cape Maclear/Chombe Village

Joel, our Australian friend, tried to prove
 he could pleat hair. Quite painful.
But I laughed it off.

Fishermen on the lake in the morning

Main Street

Zander and QB getting ready for a boat trip to the island

Bait fish and little fish--you can buy them from your own boat!

One might buy these little fish for Fish Eagle bait.
Joel's baiting technique is very unique.

But the eagle was interested!!

The whole crew made it to the island!

Cichlids!

The sun began to set over the island as we arrived back at shore.

8/5/13 Travel Travel Travel

                The last two days were super heavy travel days.  Harare to Lusaka took 10 hours direct on a windy road, and a border crossing from Zimbabwe to Zambia.  Then yesterday was intense! 5:00 bus from Lusaka to Chipata, cab to the border of Malawi, cab to Machinji on the Malawi side, combi (a small bus that stops a LOT) to Lilongwe-the capitol of Malawi, and another combi to Monkey Bay.  I pretty much stayed up all night, so the first few legs were fine—slept a lot! And even the combi to Lilongwe was pretty fast, so we decided to push all the way through to the lake.  We discovered that the conversion to USD was actually 390 Malawi Kwatcha to 1 USD, so we were pleased that it was not the 100 MWK=USD 1 like we had thought. Feeling much better about money, things started to fall apart about 75 km from Monkey Bay.  Our bus started to smell like burning as we wound through the mountains.  I was telling myself that it was probably people burning trash.  Maybe.  Anyway, our driver stopped and left us in “Monkey Bay” but it was actually the TURN OFF for Monkey Bay. Which was actually 12 KM away from us.  And that wall we were looking at was not the wall of our hostel, like he said. It was a bar. Luckily, not two minutes later, a truck came through and did take us to the hostel door.  Just that combi driver was a butt. We set up camp and fell asleep pretty quick. 

                And the sleep was actually pretty good-tent on soft sand is usually a good (slightly messy) bet. Waking up at the hostel was BEAUTIFUL! Full 9 hours of sleep, sunshine, lake. Ants everywhere, and a few stomach problems for a travelmate of mine, but both passed quickly.  We walked into town and got tons of fresh fruit, and returned to the camp for a day on the beach. Way worth it.  I finally feel like I’m on vacation. Maybe I’ll walk up the hill for a view in a bit!

6/5/2013 Harare International Art Festival: A letter to my mom

Dear Mom,

                There are so many things you would love about HIFA!! The art here is gorgeous—paintings, carvings, jewelry, cloth, music, performance.  We saw Baba Mal from Senegal. He had sort of a Rasta take on traditional music.  The next night, we saw Mokoomba and Friends, who reminded me of Red Hot Chili Peppers but African.  One of the “friends” played a didgeridoo.  You would have loved all the dancing (it reminded me of music we would dance to while cooking or baking in the kitchen), but probably would have wanted to go home before the DJs. We danced until 2:30 in the morning, and got home at 3:30!

                Speaking of “home,” we stayed with Erika’s friend from college, Ana, who lives in Harare.  Her family’s house was beautiful! Pool, huge yard, tennis court! And they were unbelievably generous and hospitable.  Ana’s mother is from Croatia, and her hostess style reminded me a lot of Mrs. Zoneville. Very intense and loving.  She hosted an Orthodox Easter breakfast from her friends, and we got leftovers for dinner! Yum—ham, muffins, breads, cheeses.

                Speaking of yum, the festival had so much food! Indian, African, fried everything, COFFEE (!!) and Middle Eastern. It was hard to decide if we wanted to spend money on food or art… ended up splitting it about $7/$13. But you’ll have to wait until I see you to see what I bought!

                The people were wonderful! Everyone is so nice and friendly. I did not meet a single disagreeable person in Zimbabwe, and all of the festival goers and staff were super relaxed. There was a woman who read tarot, but it was $10, and I knew it wouldn’t be as good as one of your readings.  Maybe we could do a Skype reading?

                Anyways, you would have loved Harare! I love and miss you loads!

                Love,

                                Rae Lynn

An elephant made from recycled cans

HIFA!!!!!

One of the walls around...

A dress made from milk containers. I want it!!!

They had a beautiful photography display

This Is NEW Africa

Ana's house. Stunning!

4/5/2013 Great Zimbabwe-A letter to my dad

Dear Dad,

                Great Zimbabwe has the largest ruins south of the pyramids.  Three major sites—a hilltop religious site, village walls, and the royal great enclosure.  The walls are over 11 meters high and 6 meters thick in spots and are over 700 years old.  And they’re all mortar-less.  Still standing tall with no glue to hold them together.  You would have loved it! And there is even a hostel at the camp grounds, so you could get a bed, rather than camping in the freezing cold on the ground, like we were.  Our campsite looked pretty foolish next to the South African family who were “glam-camping” around Zimbabwe for their holiday, with their custom kettle and refrigerator.  We boiled water for porridge and coffee in tin cans. You would have been proud.

                None of our food was stolen by monkeys, which was a legitimate concern, since they were everywhere.  Waking up at sunrise and hearing them waking up around us was very cool. 

                Back to the ruins-at the hilltop site there is the worship center/alter, which had 5 meter high walls with benches built in on one side, and in the front, there were progressive walls and benches built going up a granite rock face.  On the top of the face, accessible by stairs to the back, was where the head religious figure sat. They must have chosen this face carefully, because this boulder was flat on top, and anyone sitting there would be brilliantly illuminated at both sunrise and sunset.  It was breathtaking. You would have loved it. 

                We went down the hill to the royal compound.  There’s this huge monument, but what was way more impressive was the “parallel passage”—a huge hallway that had walls over 11 meters high, and there were tunnels through the walls for ventilation and drainage.  Looking through those, you could really see how thick the walls were. Super cool.

Anyway, dad, I was thinking about how much you would love it the whole time I was there!  Super old planks holding up the doorways… Reminded me of your driftwood.  I’m having a great time, and I miss you every day!

Love,

                Rae Lynn

Thieving Monkeys!

View of the Hilltop Complex from below

Taking the Ancient Pathway up to the Hilltop

The Western Entrance to the Complex

We made it to the top!

Everything was spectacularly built 

The view of the entrance of the Hilltop Complex from above

The Great Enclosure from above

The entrance to the Great Enclosure--the Royal Compound

Erika in the Parallel Passage

We were really cold in the morning!

The reconstructed village entrance