Uhhhhh.... Hey Mom, remember when I said I would NOT visit Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe pretty much rocked! I don't know if any of you remember (or were listening) but last year I would not stop talking about the cholera outbreak in zimbabwe- one of the most developed countries in sub-saharan africa. I was furious about the politics in Zimbabwe last december and went on a rant around hopkins about politically-caused plagues (to be fair I also bombed an o-chem test that day and might have been channeling rage). When I found out that zimbabwe also had some HUGE ancient ruins that rivalled Machu Pichu and were only beat by the great pyramids in African pre-colonial structures, I was sold. Cholera and ancient civilizations? I'm there!

For my concerend family: No worries, the cholera outbreak was limited to the capitol, where I did not visit, and is now over; plus I only used bottled water. Furthermore, politics have settled a lot and as the country is pretty desperate to revive its once-thriving tourism industry and the official currency is the US dollar right now, as long as one says NOTHING about politics while in the country you are treated VERY well. In fact, everybody on the bus was so friendly and concerned about us that they spent several hours drilling us in safety tips (all mostly common sense) and arranged for a taxi to pick us up and find us a bus to our final destination.

Some thoughts about Zimbabwe: Zim was fascinating for several reasons, the population is maybe ten-times that of Botswana and it is readily apparent when you are driving around that the development is significantly higher than mozambique or even botswana. Zimbabweans are very proud of their country (rightly so, it is beautiful) and the Zim dollar was at one point equal in strength to the USD. Last year the country fell apart thanks to a certain political jerk (understatement, but I want to be allowed back into the country) and inflation reached over 3000%. They gave up on the currency when a coke cost 3 trillion Zim Dollars and a ton of Zimbabweans fled into Bots. The frustration of the populace is tangible and when you talk about the country with a zimbabwean they want to tell you how beautiful it is and they all say, "just the politics, in a few years it will settle..."

Because of the Zim situation, it is in fact impossible to plan a trip to the country because the hotels or businesses listed online or in guidebooks either have different phone numbers or no longer exist. So, on the advice of a local we just headed to Zim and assumed we would be able to find something once we got there (grammy ann and papa max, slow down....breathe..... I am alive). After a 13 hour bus ride from Gaborone across the border to bulawayo- during which we did not in fact have seats and I sat on the floor for 80% of it- we managed to get on a bus to Masvingo (read: the zimbabweans on the bus found out we didn't have concrete plans, flipped out, and the driver found us a taxi to get us a meal and take us directly to the correct bus).

We finally arrived in Masvingo (after the bus broke down and we attempted to hitchhike 40km but found another bus instead) and could not find somewhere to stay untill these random guys on the street said they would drive us to an inexpensive lodge outside of town for $10 USD. Uh...yeah, sketchy. Turned out that one of these guys just graduated with a degree in marketing right before the economy collapsed and they were desperately trying to start a small tourism business that catered to small groups of foreigners just like us. They actually had a van with seatbelts and the name of their company printed on the side (most legit thing I have seen in southern africa by the way... seatbelts!)and they do not usually pick up people off the street but they were at the grocery store and saw a golden opportunity as we walked by. We bargained with them and in the end agreed that they would drive us to and from the hotel, Great Zimbabwe monument and to the botswana border the next day for $30 USD each. I am pretty sure that they outrageously undercharged us with the hope that we would bring them more business. As they were awesome and convenient, here is my plug for struggling entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe: "Stone Tours and Adventures" (stonetours@yahoo.com) if you are going to Zimbabwe, give them a call because they pretty much salvaged our trip and were awesome.

The reason I am gushing about these guys is because they took us to this hotel where we had really nice double rooms surrounded by tropical trees and flowers overlooking a lake with super polite staff and room service....for $15 USD a night. (I calculated that I could stay there for less than rent in a crummy apartment in Spokane) I was served a huge continental breakfast (for $5) by uniformed staff on a verandah with this view:
Yeah, forget Mozambique, I'm moving to Zimbabwe.

The next day we went to the Great Zimbabwe Monument (the entire reason for the trip that I "organized" and dragged along five of my friends). These ruins are only beat by the great wall of china and the eqyptian pyramids. They are the remains of the capitol city of a sprawling empire that stretched from tanzania to south africa and namibia to mopzambique. They think that 25000 people lived in the city at one point, including the king and his 200 wives. No mortar was used to build the place and the walls stretch to about 32 feet at their highest and 18 feet at their widest. It actually beat Machu Pichu as my favorite ruins!

This picture is of the hill complex where the king stayed. The walls incorporate these huge boulders resulting in this sprawling complex that from a distance looks like nothing. Above me is the balcony where the king could stand and see everything in the city- and yell for his favorite wife.

This is a view of the great enclosure where the queen lived. The smaller buildings in front of it are the homes of the 199 other wives.

This is a shot of an opening in the wall for drainage just so you can appreciate what 18 feet thick walls look like

The great enclosure: this is a very narrow entrance for defense purposes leading to the initiation chamber where the royal heirs would be taught the ways of adults; a chamber that appropriately includes a lot of freudian symbolism.

More photos of the great Zim to come including astrological observatory, steven the quirky guide, the tree that "helped" the king with his 200 wives, and a discussion of good-natured/ scary corruption in Zimbabwe
Bottom line: Zimbabwe is so AWESOME!!! Buy a plane ticket, come visit me, and we will go to Zimbabwe