We flew on another small "bush plane" from the Londolozi airstrip back to Jo’burg, then on to Victoria Falls.
Vic Falls is the largest waterfall in the world – i.e., it has the most water going over it. The falls are over 1 mile long, with a drop of 400+ feet. They are over twice as long as Niagara Falls, with 2-3 times the drop of Niagara. Suffice it to say, Vic Falls is big!
October is the end of the dry season, when the falls are at their lowest, which is supposed to be a good time to visit because you can actually see the falls – during the high season, the falls are often totally obscured by mist from the sheer amount of water tumbling over the falls.
Zimbabwe is on one side of Vic Falls and Zambia is on the other side. We stayed at the Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe – the oldest hotel at the falls.
our hotel:
the view from our hotel:
The falls were beautiful, but the most interesting thing was Zimbabwe itself. Long story short, the country is seriously messed up! You may have heard that Zimbabwe has 1000% (yes, one thousand percent) inflation and very high unemployment. This is the product of extremely poor (i.e., "corrupt") government. President Mugabe was elected 26 years ago on the platform of taking the white-owned farms and giving them to the black people. Mugabe took almost all of the white owned farms, but he gave them to his buddies – not to "the people". His buddies apparently did not even try to run the farms and just took what they could. The result is that Zimbabwe – which used to be one of the shining examples of democracy and progress in Africa –is now in abysmal shape. There are essentially no working farms, no cattle, no diaries, etc. Just outrageous inflation and unemployment.
Things are so bad that the government had to print new currency (imagine turning in a $100 bill and receiving a $1 bill!). And, get this – the new currency is only good for one year – their money has an expiration date! Also, foreigners cannot use Zimbabwe money – they insist that foreigners pay in their own currency (their money is worthless, so they make you pay in your own money). In fact, everything there is priced in U.S. dollars (menus, rafting, helicopter rides, etc.). it’s weird to be half a world away from the US – in Africa! – and find things priced in US dollars.
Unfortunately, the situation is dire and people are desperate, so they are taking advantage of visitors. Everywhere we went, we were charged outrageous fees, then there would be some inexplicable surcharge, plus some new tax, etc., etc.
Here are two examples of the rip offs.
Example #1: Dad and I went to the gift shop for candy bars, and 2 candy bars (basic, regular old candy bars) were $20 US!!! A few days later, we saw the same candy bars in Botswana for 50 cents each!
Example #2: We took a small bus/van from the airport to the hotel – about a 15 minute ride. We had pre-arranged the transportation. We met a UK couple who had not pre-arranged transportation, but took the same bus with us – the bus ride cost them $200 US! A one-way, 15 minute van ride should not cost you $200, even in New York or Tokyo or Moscow, let alone in Africa!
Apparently, the tourists have learned that they will get ripped off and they are staying away from Zimbabwe – in Vic Falls, the hotels have only 15% occupancy, whereas the hotels on the Zambia side of the falls have 100% occupancy! We noticed that our hotel was practically empty and the giant resort hotel next door was practically empty as well.
We found Zimbabwe depressing. Our hotel was a beautiful old hotel, but it was rundown: the carpets were worn out; the staff uniforms were dirty, stained and torn, and the staff themselves looked haggard and rundown.
We spent a couple of hours talking with a fellow who was born in Zimbabwe but had lived in Zambia for 30+ years. He was visiting Zimbabwe under protest – a visiting family member insisted on going to Zimbabwe He confirmed what we had suspected – the country has massive problems which are not going to be fixed as long as Mugabe(or one of his cronies) is in power.
Long story short (I know, too late), we were happy that we only had 1-½ days in Vic Falls, and we were happy to leave.
Oh, we did take a neat helicopter ride over the falls – what a beautiful view, and my first ride in a heli!
the helicopter ride:
our hotel, from the air:
No comments:
Post a Comment