Trip of a Lifetime!

It’s July which means that it’s time for my last school break. I’ve traveled a lot since living here. I had visited (and stayed the night in) all 10 provinces in Moçambique. I also took my big Tanzania trip over Christmas and now that our visas have been figured out I’ve been able to visit Malawi a few times. I knew that this would be my last break and I was still missing out on traveling to Ilha de Moçambique (Mozambique Island) as well as Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Ilha is in the northern part of Moz, and Vic Falls is also a long trip but I decided that it would be possible to check both off my list with one big loop over our 2 week break, and luckily I had a few friends crazy enough to join me. To start off the vacation, my friend Emily was throwing a July 4th party for our region at her site (affectionately called “The Dombe”). She’s a 4 hour drive through the mountains to a site where she doesn’t have electricity. The real Peace Corps experience, for sure. After the open back chapa ride through the mountains (and 4 hours to go about 85km) I finally made it just in time for a BBQ complete with onion rings, beef cheeseburgers, hotdogs and beer. It was a great time. From there we made the trek up north. We hitch-hiked from Chimoio to Nampula city all in 1 day (15 hours and over 1,000km) for a total of 55 mts ($2) which really helped my budget. Then after one of the worst minibus rides of my time here (a woman leaned on me the entire way. My face was squished against her boob. And Emily was sitting about 4 feet away from me and I couldn’t see her even once for all the people that were on there) I finally made it to Ilha. Ilha is kind of a mini-Zanzibar and it was really fun. There are a lot of white stone buildings and big expanses of turquoise water. We stayed at a Ruby’s backpackers which had a beautiful rooftop lounge to hang out on. The island is about 3 km long and no more than 1 km wide so our first afternoon we walked around and got oriented, concluding the evening with crab gnocchi on an amazing rooftop restaurant. Then the next day it was all the tourist things—visiting the big fort at the Northern end of the island as well as the 1st church in Moz that the fort was built around; A heaping plate of fried calamari for lunch; concluding with a free bike tour of the entire island. I learned that the island was the first place to be called Mozambique, and is in fact where the name originated from. From there it was 4 days long travel days to reach Vic Falls. Day 1: Nampula to Mandimba via the train and a chapa at the end. Day 2: Mandimba to Lilongwe, Malawi (120km from my house). Day 3: Lilongwe to Lusaka, Zambia. Day 4: Lusaka to Livingstone, Zambia where the falls are located. It was exhausting, but totally worth it. At the falls the first day we just walked around the trails at the falls in wonder of all the water all around. The water hits the bottom with so much force that it literally rains up at you and you get soaked. AMAZING. Then Emily got accosted by a baboon that ripped (literally) through her purse (in hindsight hysterical—at the time terrifying) and we decided to take a little walk on the bridge that is the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Because of political instability, P.C. volunteers are forbidden from traveling into Zimbabwe except to view the falls. The extra visa costs were not in our budget, but they do let you go out to the bridge for free. Emily bungee-jumped and I documented the entire thing. No way was I doing that! Then it was back to Livingstone for 2 for 1 margaritas at a legit Mexican restaurant. My stomach has never been so happy . The next day I got up early for a game drive. There weren’t a lot of animals, but the ones we did see were very active and fun to watch. Then we ended the day with a sunset (booze) cruise along the Zambezi river that feeds the falls. All you can eat and drink with hippos all around, a great time. Then it was back to Lusaka where we watched a movie in a theater (with popcorn!) and found Dr. Pepper as well as legit tortilla chips for sale. PS, all after eating at Subway. It was glorious. Then back to Lilongwe for a night and back to my house the next. We stopped at Dedza pottery (on the border of Malawi 40km from my site) for cheesecake just to make the culinary experience complete. It was great, and now I’m looking forward to finishing up my year here and coming home in December. See you in about 4 months‼