Victoria Falls - February 26-28

We ended our tour in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Due to the political and economic state of the country, Zimbabwe is a damaged country right now. You can't use a credit card anywhere and they won't accept their own currency so it's essential to have cash in either U.S. dollars or South African rand and lots of small bills since you probably won't be getting change. We stocked up on food and water before entering the country because we'd heard the grocery stores wouldn't be well stocked. Many stores and restaurants are closed down completely.

The town of Victoria Falls is cute but empty. Every time we left the hostel we would be immediately surrounded by people trying to sell us various crafts like wood carvings. They didn't just ask for money but also wanted to trade for our flip-flops or socks, anything we could give them.

Every day people from Zimbabwe cross the bridge into Zambia just to buy basic groceries like bread and fruit. The country is also suffering from a cholera outbreak but not in the Victoria Falls area.

Here is what hyperinflation looks like - a note for one hundred trillion dollars that is worth pretty much nothing.


Zimbabweans do have this beautiful landmark to be proud of. Because of the low volume of tourists right now we had Victoria Falls National Park almost to ourselves. The falls are called one of the seven natural wonders of the world and they did not disappoint. Over twice the height and width of Niagara, these spectacular falls stretch for over a mile along the Zambia/Zimbabwe border and push out 184 million gallons of water per minute.

Despite all the problems, we did feel reasonably safe while in Zimbabwe. The unrest in the country is mostly related to the political situation and therefore doesn't involve tourists. Even so, it was important to always be vigilant and aware because with such high numbers of desperate people its easy to see how the security conditions could deteriorate very quickly.