I’ve been sanctioned…

After I left Malawi (see below) I was on the road to Victoria Falls, the seventh wonder of the natural world.  The falls can be seen from either Zambia or Zimbabwe, and because of my geographical location in Malawi, I decided to go through Zimbabwe.  Foreign Policy magazine recently ranked Zimbabwe as the second worst failed state in the world (after only Somalia).  I was prepared for poor infrastructure, poverty and general chaos upon arriving in the capital city of two million people, Harare.  When I got off the bus, however, I was amazed at the modernity of this “failed state.”  Tall buildings, parks, fast food restaurants and busy, yet organized, traffic reminded me of a small city somewhere in the suburbs of the United States!  While there are great problems with the government (they now use the U.S. dollar as official currency because they lost control of their own) and I saw many instances of extreme poverty, this capital city gives a great first impression. Outside of the city there are some interesting sites and I chose to visit the balancing rocks in Epworth and the rock paintings in Domboshawa.

 

Bored with rocks I quickly departed the capital and traveled by bus and then train on to Victoria Falls, with the overnight train ride with personal sleeper (for only $7!) being my absolute favorite travel experience in the last two months.  The falls are impressive, as I suppose they should be if they are one of the wonders of the world.  I visited in the heart of dry season, however, and the flow was a little low, but still enough to get me pretty wet from the spray.  As usual, my amateur attempt at photographing this wonder leaves much to be desired!

Victorial Falls is known for its adventure sports.  Everything from rafting to bungee jumping to sky diving.  I was playing with the idea of doing something crazy when the money problem began.  The money problem being that the United States still has sanctions in place against Zimbabwe, including a clause that doesn’t allow money from US accounts to be withdrawn in the country.  That means this guy, who thought maybe it was a bad machine or miscommunication took his ATM problems lightly until he was left with only $14!  With the help of many friends and some luck hitch-hiking I made it to the border on only $9 and got to the nearest ATM in Botswana to finally get some cash.

After that I continued straight south to meet up with fellow DeWittian Matt”Regular” Dean in Gaborone, Botswana to relax for a few days.  We crashed a few birthday parties and snuck into the university pool, a great break from hectic travel and strangers.

This morning I took the bus to Johannesburg, South Africa, where I am waiting (10 hours) for my onward bus to Durban.  Joburg is a bustling city, the most developed I’ve seen in Africa (I had a real Big Mac for lunch!).  The best part is that there is still world cup paraphernalia all over the city.  It almost feels like its still happening!