Five Days into the Trip

We're just hanging out until the train departs tonight for Bulawayo, then Great Zimbabwe and finally to Harare . Will be fun to compare the train ride to Namibia's.


Here are some of the happenings thus far:

*A 24+ hour bus ride from Windhoek to Livingstone which should have taken 19 hours.

*Victoria Falls lives up to expectations, especially the Zimbabwe side! I tried for two days to do the ultralight flight over the falls but the weather didn't cooperate.

*Almost daily torrential downpours, walking in them, getting soaked to the bone and liking it.

*Meeting a somewhat fictional chain smoking, mango-eating, insomniac, gemstone selling character in Livingstone who said was from Zimbabwe and wanted to help us. Our senses told us otherwise. I did get a job offer from him...

*I am currently dealing with FOUR different currencies: US, Rand, Kwatcha (Zambia) and the Zim dollar. I am a multi-millionaire, trading US$20 for Zim$24 000 000 (official government rate is 1 USD = 30 000 Zim dollars. Unofficial is 1 USD = 1.2 mil to 2.5 mil Zim.


Minnesota connections so far:

*When talking to the somewhat fictional chain smoking, mango-eating, insomniac, gemstone selling character I told him I was from Minnesota. He replies, "I was selling to someone from there ... living in a town named Cannon ... Cannon Falls."

*Met a really cool gal from Minneapolis who is currently in Mozambique on a research grant. We did the whole "Fargo" accent to the comical amazement of everyone around us.

*Hurriedly walking down the muddy streets of Livingstone we passed a Midwestern/Scandinavian looking guy wearing a U of M Gopher hat

*Riding to the Zambia/Zimbabwe border I met an RPCV from Lesotho who used to work at a summer camp near Bemidji.