After first going to the wrong border crossing out of Botswana, which accesses Zambia, we finally made our way over to the Zimbabwe Border. As I mentioned before, Zimbabwe is a country in despair, economically. It gained its independence from Britain in 1980 and has been ruled by Robert Mugabe and his ZANU party since that time. Mugabe attempted to redistribute the farms previously held by white families to the native black Africans. However, he only redistributed the land to his colleagues and family members. That action caused the farms to fall into disuse and caused the economy to spiral out of control. Now, nearly one third of the country is reliant on food from the United Nations, the United States, and the European Union. They have 80% unemployment, and over 68% of the population is below the world poverty line of making less than $2 per day.

Upon arriving to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, I did not feel that the situation seemed as grim as the numbers and stories portrayed. However, what I saw was remnants of a once thriving economy in Africa. The town looked as if it was just about to boom as a big tourist town, and then everything stopped. There were no new buildings, and the inflation rate is well over 100,000%. The money was nominated in the millions and 35 million Zimbabwean dollars equals one US dollar. I had a stack of bills nearly an inch and a half thick that was worth less than 15 US cents! In other words, the money is essentially useless, and there are no beggars in Zimbabwe but all of them are barters. They will give carvings, statues, paintings, etc worth around $50 in the States for your old pair of tennis shoes. It is a very bad situation there, but when you read this blog they will have already had their Presidential elections, which took place a few days after we left. Currently the opposition is claiming to have won, but Mugabe still has tight control and is trying to fight the results.

On the other hand, we were at Victoria Falls, which is the largest falling curtain of water in the world. It is 1 mile long and 360 ft tall and is part of the Zambezi River. The falls can also be seen face-on because they fall into a gorge and opposite of the falls is a cliff of the same height, which is only 200 feet away. The enormity of the falls and the way with which you can view them provides for a really powerful experience because it is really loud, you get drenched, and it is set in a tropical jungle.

While we were there, we went to visit the falls, but the most exciting adventure that we had was bungee jumping off the Bridge that crosses the Zambezi River just beyond the falls, which links Zimbabwe and Zambia. The jump is a 350 foot jump down to the raging river below. With our nerves rattling a little, Ian and I and most of our group took the leap, and it was a fantastic experience of adrenaline rush. The worst part was actually dangling upside down under the bridge waiting for them to hoist you back up because you could feel yourself sliding in the harness and felt like you were going to fall out.

Now we are crossing over into Zambia, where we will not be doing any major activities except for driving over the next few days. Then we will move on to Malawi and spend a few days visiting beach towns along Lake Malawi, which takes up nearly 1/3 of the country and forms the border between Mozambique and Malawi.