Zambia Favorite Pictures

I've been promising since forever that I would share my pictures from Zambia...now that I've had two trips, I'm posting here some of my favorite pictures from each of the trips:

Roadside Mango Sales:


Victoria Falls:


Toad in the Hand:


Kids:


Girl with wheelbarrow:


Girls spinning troupe:




I wish I knew what kind of flower this is:


Leopard rug:


Tiny Praying mantis:


Giraffe:


Me on Safari game drive:


Elephant

Mosi-oa-Tunya: The Smoke Which Thunders

As many of you know, and many more of you don't, I was in Zambia in December. I wrote my first blog from Zambia while I was there, and then completely fell off the map! Sorry about that... It was Christmas, and then New Year's, and then where did all of January and half of February go? It's now nearly Valentine's Day and I haven't written a blog in months, as Andrea writes blog after blog of our adventures in China. Even though she has been also using some of my snaps (and giving me credit - Hi Moglie!), I have been sadly delinquent in my blogging duties. Thank goodness for Andrea who has been keeping our blog alive while I've been concentrating on doing a whole lot of nothing instead. Anyway, I digress. I'm going to let my first post in 2 months be about Zambia nestled along the Zambezi River, but completely landlocked in Southern Africa with Zimbabwe and Mozambique to the South, Malawi and Tanzania to the East, DR Congo to the North, and Angola to the West. Zambia is a very peaceful country despite some of the strife that we find in the news lately about its neighbors (Zimbabwe anyone?), and it was a FANTASTIC introduction to Africa, its culture, food, and people.

I spent a lot of my time there travelling between the capital city and several of the regions there. The most difficult of the trips by far was the one from Lusaka (the Capital) to Livingstone. We were on the road for about eight hours, leaving Lusaka early in the morning, and heading to the home of Victoria Falls, and Zambia's crown jewel of tourism. In the local language (there are 72 of them, so please don't ask me to specify which one), the name is Mosi-oa-Tunya: The Smoke which Thunders. When I say it that way, I hear a BIG voice in my head like a movie announcer...THE SMOKE WHICH THUNDERS! Being that Vic Falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the world, it just seems more appropriate that way.
So the trip to Livingstone was LOOOOOONG. Like, really long. But at least my team and I were in a minibus, and there were no problems with flat tires, although that certainly would have been a possibility given the state of the roads. The scenery along the way was magnificent, with green, lush rolling hills, and dark, red earth against a soft, blue sky. The contrast in colors was striking. The road most of the way was decent, with not many potholes. But as we were about 100km outside of our destination, the quality of the road changed. The story goes that the road was originally built from donor funds (as is just about everything), and it used to be wonderfully paved and flat. As the years go by, there were no additional donor funds to maintain the road. With heavy rains every year and no restrictions on the weight of the trucks allowed to travel the roads, potholes form; and I mean BIG potholes:
Add that to having no lines, and everyone driving on the wrong side of the road-- scratch that-- everyone driving all over the road and it makes for a very scary driving situation. Thankfully, our driver was Zambian and quite skilled in navigating the potholes in the road without problems, and we covered the last 100km in about 4 hours.

The Falls are aptly named as 'The Smoke which Thunders' since you can see the falls from miles and miles away, even though all you're actually seeing is the mist rising through the air. This was my first glimpse of it:

When we got into Livingstone, we drove into the area near the entrance of the falls. There seemed to be some trees that were "slightly" larger and a different species than all the others. I asked about them, and found out they're not trees at all! In fact, they were actually radio antennae!

I took quite a few pictures of the falls, but I must apologize in advance for the poor quality of my pictures here. I discovered that with the increased moisture in the air, I had a hard time getting well-focused shots. This was the entrance to the falls, and I think that if you didn't know it was there, you just might almost miss it!

After you pay the inflated "foreigner price" of $10USD (not payable in local currency!!!!) they take down your passport information and let you in. The pathways are all made of small, slippery stones that are constantly wet from the moisture. I was terrified that I would slip and fall at any moment. As you can see, there were lots of rails for me to steady myself in case I felt I would fall. All the fear I had of falling on these pathways went out of my head when I saw my first glimpse of the falls themselves:

Gorgeous, isn't it? When it's at full capacity just after the rainy season, Vic Falls is the largest waterfall in the world. I must be careful when I say that though, because it is by far NOT the tallest. That titles belongs to Angel Falls in Venezuela, and Victoria here doesn't even make the top 10 of the world's tallest. But these falls are the BIGgest in that they are the widest with a width of 1 mile and a height of 360ft, they form the largest sheet of falling water on the planet. The whole of the falls is viewable straight on, and at the end of the rainy season, all the rocks you see in this picture are covered with massive amounts of gushing water from the runoff of all the other rivers in Zambia/Zimbabwe.

Here are a few more pictures that I took while I was walking around the falls trying not to slip:

The slipperiest bridge in the world....

Bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe

Muli bwanji from Zambia: The Airport Cha-Cha

On Friday night, I boarded an overnight flight to London. The flight to London was really easy for me. Almost immediately after take-off, I put on my eyemask and ear plugs, took a valerian root cap and was dead to the world. I even missed dinner on the flight, and didn't wake up until I felt the plane start its decent into Heathrow. I felt pretty rested, and was definitely ready to move.

My plan for the day was to meet K at Paddington station, where we would shove off for a whirlwind tour of the key things to see in the city. With her advice, I boarded the Heathrow express, and it was sound. At Paddington station, I quickly found the statue of Paddington Bear as he is remembered for being "found" there by his family. Once K and I found each other, we rushed to the Tube and headed for the Theames where we saw Big Ben and the Tower, and the London Eye, which is just a giant Ferris Wheel. Considering my great fear of Ferris Wheels, I was more than happy to keep my distance.

Next Stop: Westminster Abbey

The line here was so long, that there was no way we'd be able to take a tour. I snapped a few shots of the architecture and details, thankful for my college gen eds-- ART 101 which helped me to identify the stylings, etc. From there, it was on to Buckinghap Palace as we chattered away about how unimpressive and stoic it felt. Actually, the building looked remarkably like every other government building in DC: Stone, neo-classical columns, and security out front. K mentioned that it's a great spot to people watch, and once again her tip didn't disappoint as we watched the tourists' lack of respect for the memorials, climbing all over them!!!

From there, we headed to Trafalgar Square and saw Nelson's Column, a memorial of a battle from a long time ago that remains in the in the English modern memory...ewkay. From there, we rushed around to find food, with almost no luck, missing the English "lunch hour" at all the pubs, so my hopes for a real eeeeenglish Fish and Chips lunch were dashed temporarily. We ended up at the Texas Embassy (yes it's a real place!) for some pretty respectable tex-mex offerings. K told me that normally in the UK you'd get Doritos and tomato sauce, and they'd call it chips and salsa. These were nothing like doritos and the salsa was quite respectable with a kick that I figured was probalby really hot to the English palette.

Unfortunately, after lunch, I was about 30 minutes behind schedule. We rushed back to the Tube, and luckily I managed to get the train I needed back to Paddington quickly. But I was nearly dashed when the Heathrow express train I was on was delayed outside the airport by about 20 minutes. If you're doing the math, that means I was nearly 1 hour later than I scheduled myself to be....I was making contingency plans in my head, and praying fiercely...Once at the airport train station I ran (yes RAN!) with my backpack on and laptop in hand all the way to security without stopping. Hey, a girl's gotta get her exercise, eh?! Thankfully, security was no problem for a vetran like me as I slipped out of my shoes, took off my jackets, and breezed through with no problems. It also helps that I didn't have to take my laptop out of the bag. Thank goodness the English security xrays don't have a problem with laptop bags like TSA in the States does. I got to my gate (nearly the very last on in Terminal 1) just as they started boarding....whew!

The flight to Johannesburg (Joburg) was 11 hours and I probably got 5 hours of sleep give or take. I decided I was going to like South African Airways when I found socks, an eyemask, and a toothbrush in a pack on my seat with a heavy blanket and pillow. After my toes nearly froze off on the flight to London, I was thankful. Little did I know that would be the last cold I would feel for a while. The flight was quite hot, but I wasn't complaining, despite having spent the second day in a row in the same clothes...I watched a movie and continued reading my book (Eclipse)

The Airport in Joburg was interesting...it was my third airport in as many days. I traveled for 36 hours in all before getting to Lusaka, and I was amused by the fact that the music at the airports was not your usual muzak like you'd find in an elevator. Nooooo, this was american hip hop music...and as I treked through the airport with my hand luggage I was practially dancing to the cha-cha slide, and laughing at myself for doing it, but I was amused!

By the time i got to Lusaka I was pretty well cooked. It was hot...really hot and I was in long sleeves and pants standing out like a sore thumb compared to all the tourists in their linen and sandals. It's hot here...but I'm thankful for a breeze that flows almost constantly. The people are friendly, and when I went to Mass last night, I don't think I've ever heard singing that was so beautiful in my life. The voices...the VOICES! That's all I can really say, since i have no other words for it...what a blessing it was to have been able to hear them, I can't wait until next Sunday!

It's late here and I"m going to sign off for now since I have to be at our office early tomorrow morning. I hope to be able to share some more pictures than the two I've posted here very soon...wish me luck with a faster Internet connection.

Goodnight, and love to you all.