I have no idea what that o be is on the top of the blog.  Geez.

April 16th.  This morning, we crossed the border to Zimbabwe.  Took us an hour and a half to make it through the immigration line.  They had two people working there, and there was a large group of students ahead of us.  We had to pay $30 US for a visa, which was a surprise to us, but oh well.  And no restrooms here, which made some people cranky.

We all went to the "bus" and waited while Reid got all the paperwork accomplished.  We occupied ourselves by watching the warthogs root around outside the fence.  I've decided there is no such thing as a skinny warthog.  They're all potbellied and busy busy.

Our driver introduced himself to us as "Stanley" like in "Stanley Livingstone."  Uh huh.  It's been our experience so far that everyone who has an interesting name has chosen their own name.  Our "polemen" at the mokoros were "Life, Matt, Galaxy, Jessica and Lee."  We had "Life".  Beverly asked Galaxy if that was his real name and he said "no, I chose it."  Probably because no tourist can pronounce their real names.  Galaxy had dreadlocks so his name kind of fit him. 

It was another half hour or more to Victoria Falls.  We're staying in a nice hotel here.  It has a pool with a swim-up bar.  Our rooms are in a detached building that is two story.  There is a hallway that runs in front of all the rooms and has large openair windows to the grounds.  We're on the bottom floor but all the rest of the group is on the second.  When they went to their rooms, there was a baboon walking down the hallway.  So, I keep a close eye out when walking from our room to the main building for meals. 

We have a free afternoon so the four of us, me, Stella, Beverly and Gretchen, went to the market.  Stella and Gretchen are not shoppers so they didn't particularly enjoy it.  We were hit up by guys trying to sell us stuff every step of the way.  Beverly had to go to an ATM so while we were waiting for her, this guy came up to us wearing a "tourist police" bib. He said that he would walk with us to keep the vendors from bothering us.  So "John" went with us to the market.  We went through the market while he waited outside.  Beverly wanted to buy some carved animals for her grandchildren and I wanted to look at bowls.  I had brought a lot of stuff to barter with so I gave her some bandannas, told her not to bring out more than one at a time, and wandered off.  I ended up buying one small stone bowl, but she bought a number of carvings.  I had a water bottle that said "Reilly's Auto Parts" on it, that I got at the car show here in Boise, and some BSU t-shirts and bandannas with me.  The guy took the water bottle and a bandanna as well as some money for the bowl.  I'm sure I paid more than I should have but oh well. 

Gretchen and Stella had wandered off to see the stores that were close by while we were going through the market.  Everyone wanted something for their mother.  "My mother needs a bandanna."  Uh huh.  And they all wanted to look at my t-shirts but I wouldn't let them.  I really didn't see anything I wanted.  I was in Africa in 1998 and bought a lot of stuff then.

John was waiting for us when we finished.  Beverly and I both gave him a US dollar so he would go away.  He said "now I have my drinking money."  Okay. 

I am shocked by how commercial Victoria Falls has become since 1998.  It has a population of 65,000 people now.  When I was here before, it was maybe half that size, had 2-3 nice hotels and you could hear the roar of the falls from anywhere all the time.  Now it has multiple hotels, a casino, of all things, and is so commercial with so much traffic that you can't hear the falls at all.  Very discouraging.

Tonight, we all went to the falls so see the "moonbow".  They only allow people in the park at the falls three nights a month, the night before full moon, full moon night, and the night after the full moon.  We had a scary experience.  I'm going to publish this because it's getting long, but I'll continue the story in the next posting.