Our farewell to Zambia

Time has flown by! It seems like yesterday when we landed at the Livingstone airport. Yet somehow today was our last day in Zambia. Our weeks were hectic and busy and our weekends were even more hectic and busy. For our last day we took things slow and really focused on being in Zambia.

We ‘slept in’ till 7:00 and had our usual cold cereal for breakfast. We then packed up all the clothes that Zac decided he no longer wanted and headed to a curio market that we pass everyday. Zac had walked through this market so many times that he had actually made friends with a few of the sellers. This mornings shopping was particularly successful because we got 2 large paintings and several other gifts for 20 USD. At every shop we traded clothes for goods and were very successful. Two weeks ago Zac and I had stopped to watch a man painting a large landscape picture. We really liked it, but we were leaving for Zimbabwe and the painting was not yet finished. For the next two weeks we would pass the shop and admire the painting. Today Zac traded a pair of his shoes for that painting. The guy who accepted our offer put on Zac’s shoes (which were way too small for him) and ran down the curios to show everyone. It was great.

After we brought our new belongs to our house we decided to take a taxi out to Victoria Falls. We had already been to the falls but they were so amazing that we wanted to visit them again. On this trip to the falls we decided to hike down to the Boiling Pot. This is the area where wall of the water flows after it hits the bottom of the falls. It is a very interesting place because when the water exits the falls it creates three huge rapids and then crashes into a wall with massive force and flows both left and right from there. This motion creates a forceful mixing motion. However the Boiling Pot was not half as interesting as the hike to get there was. Starting out we knew the trail was over 600 meters long, and that was fine. The trail started with steps that were quite hazardous but that was also fine. What was not fine was when we got to the bottom of the steps and after a few yards of a nice little trial we came to boulders we had to climb. After the boulders we had to wade through a stream; then we were back to climbing boulders. There was no trail, and we would have turned around if there hadn’t been people in front of us. This was the hardest hike I have ever been on. It was crazy, and I personally think there needed to be warnings at the beginning of the trail. We have several pictures from our hike because I felt we needed to document the trail we concurred.

After we recovered from our hike back up that torturous trail we braved the curios at Victoria Falls. Sadly we didn’t have much luck here because things were absurdly priced. We did stop and look at one painting where the artist told us to name our price. We said $5, and he said ok. We then returned to Zambezi Sun, an ultra nice resort located next to the falls. After having a quick lunch and being entertained by the compulsively stealing monkeys, we headed out on a nature trail in hopes of seeing zebras. Even after safaris in Botswana (whose national animal is the zebra) we had yet to see a zebra. After a quick five minutes of walking we came to a clearing with two giraffes and six zebras. You can’t help but love Zambia!

After we took about a hundred pictures of the wildlife we continued on our path to The Royal Livingstone Hotel. This hotel is just up river from the falls and is known for their high tea and ungodly prices. I do believe it is something like $400 a night to stay at the hotel but only 17 dollars for high tea. I chose the high tea. Put quite simply I got to chose a tea and unlimited dessert. I know $17 is a lot but to be fair, I watched the sun go down over Victoria Falls and got to chose from 20 desserts.

When I was done pampering myself, Zac and I retuned to town where we met our friends at a local restaurant and said our goodbyes. This part of my day was much sadder then I had expected. The people we have come to know from this experience are literally from around the world. We are the only two from the US. I guess this means we will just have to broaden our future travel plans. We have now retuned to our quiet house on Mushili Way and are finished packing. Tomorrow after attending a local church we will be departing for Johannesburg and the second lag of our journey. I can only hope it is half as good as this one.

Wish us luck,

Leah

PS - Zac and I will still blog about our stories from Livingstone that are as of yet untold. Hopefully, we'll find internet connections strong enough to post pictures soon, too. We'll also blog about our experience in South Africa while trying not to give just a play-by-play of the day's events. Also, we just got our first phone call in a month when Zac's mom Loris was able to call our international cell phone! That's a nice taste of home just when the homesickness is beginning to set in. Yay for technology!