Zambia, Land of Wooden Giraffe Afro Combs

As our time in Zimbabwe came to an end, we crossed Livingstone bridge into Zambia, and had relatively easygoing experience with customs.

Random aside- In my last post, I briefly mentioned that David and I had hurriedly filled out a form in an effort to avoid being sent to the back in to purgatory (also known as the Zimbabwe customs line). I neglected to mention what actually went on my form. First off, in my haste I checked the "male" box for gender. Under "reasons for visiting," I left a violent scribble, and wrote my birthday as 02/09/23. Finally, failing to awkwardly shimmy out my passport from my leg pouch while being yelled at by customs people to get back in the line, I made up a passport number that was actually two digits short. After all of this, the customs official gave my form a cursory glance and stamped my passport before shoving it back at me and shouting, "Neeeeext!" Ahhh, Bureaucracy.

Back to Zambia. One of the first things we did upon our arrival was head to the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. We'd spent the previous week hearing many times a day that the Zimbabwe side of the falls was superior, from Zimbabweans. I was surprised that not a single Zambian had the same advocacy for their side, but I soon found out why. The Zambian side is so stunning, that there's absolutely no need to advertise it. Don't get me wrong, the both sides are beautiful, but the Zambian side affords you the opportunity to get ridiculously close to the falls. Coincidentally, safety-wise, the Zambian side is downright frightening. There's these foot high vertical stumps connected by chains that follow the edge of viewing area. That's also the only thing between the viewer and certain watery death as beyond the chains is a sheer drop. Adding to that is water and moss everywhere- seriously not for those prone to vertigo.

One of my favorite things about Zambia were the random vendors we haggled with during our stay. After doing some serious damage at the curio market in town, David and I began our quest to find me a new pair of sunglasses. Yes friends, it's true- Madagascar not only is the hiding place of the evil mosquito that gave me Malaria, but also the final resting place of my beloved aviators. In any case, we happened upon a vendor who was selling some "Roy Bans." We found a pair of aviators, but they were pretty shabbily constructed and the end pieces immediately fell off. Without missing a beat, the vendor told us that that was a benefit of the glasses, as it made them easier to take on and off. We didn't get them.

The greatest part of our stay in Zambia for me was getting a chance to raft on the Zambezi. It was my first time doing class fives...and I loved it! Our guide was a guy who called himself Potato. It turns out we were quite lucky- Potato claimed that our boat was the first boat he'd led that hadn't capsized during the run. In any case, it was great fun, and we even had a chance to jump off of 30ft high rocks into the water!

Of all of the countries we've visited so far, Zambia joins the Comoros as the two that I'd love to come back to in the near future. Now we're off to Tanzania (specifically Zanzibar)!