Bulawayo

Pumba on the tracks!

Bulawayo

From Victoria Falls we took a train to Bulawayo, a cool little city that somehow felt like a mid-90's American town, with wide avenues, run-down trucks, and strip malls.

Just outside of Bulawayo, we visited Matobo National Park, famous for cave paintings, huge boulders, great views, and Cecil Rhodes' grave.

Mother and Child. (That's the name of the rock formation. I've just got a gut.)

San bushmen painted on the walls of this cave 2,000 years ago.

Paintings of leopards

Walking up to World's View, the highest point in the park.

Cecil Rhodes, the founder of Rhodesia, asked to be buried on the top of World's View. Not a bad spot.

TK moves some rocks around.

Victoria Falls

We weren’t sure what to expect from Zimbabwe, but we found it fairly pleasant and peaceful. One thing that Mugabe did right was that he made Zimbabwe the most literate country in Africa. In our brief foray through Harare, Victoria Falls, and Bulawayo, people spoke with us in a distinctly different way than we were used to. No one pointed or shouted “murungu!” In perfect English, a bartender asked us about the political situation in Swaziland, articulated his moral stance against polygamy, and discussed the need for cultures to discard antiquated traditions as their culture evolves.

The topic of their own president, however, was taboo for everyone. In Vic Falls we chatted with a friendly rasta guy while he made me a pair of earrings using bottle caps and fabric that I cut out. He laughed about the inflation rate a few years ago (6.5 SEXTILLION percent!), before they switched their currency to the American dollar. When we asked about Mugabe, his composure snapped to serious. He looked around and whispered, “There’s cops around.” When we asked some hostel owners about it later, they just said, “Yeahh, you shouldn’t ask people about Mugabe.” We asked what could happen. “Well it depends what you say,” they laughed. “But you can get arrested.”

Since our trip through Africa was nearly over, we did some touristy things at Vic Falls. We passed by hippos on a sunset boat trip. We went white water rafting on the Zambezi, which was fun for TK and terrifying for me. And we went on a lion walk with two 18 month-old cubs, who would eventually be reintroduced to the wild. 

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