Adventures in Zimbabwe, Part 2: Harare

The morning after our excursion to the Great Zimbabwe, we woke up bright and early to catch a bus to Harare -- though not early enough, because we nearly missed the bus. As we rounded the corner, the bus gave a few warning revs and we ran the last block, our bulky bags banging about on our backs.

Usual mode of transport.

The bus was, like most things in Zimbabwe, way nicer than anything I've ever seen in Mozambique. Clean, cloth seats, one butt per seat... it was fantastic. Unfortunately, it also had one thing that Mozambican buses do not: obnoxious bus preachers. I'd seen this on long-distance buses in Malawi, too -- shortly after leaving the station, one of the passengers will get up, start clapping and shouting and hallelujah-ing -- and this goes on for about an hour. I really don't enjoy having scripture shoved down my throat at 6 a.m. in Shona by a very loud man who then asks for money, but the other passengers on the bus seemed unphased. I just ate my bananas and stewed in silence.

Biker-chic coffee shop 'Helen Cakes'

Six hours later, we made it to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. We wandered around in the middle of the bustling downtown, dazed by all the surrounding high-rises. Harare is much more developed than both Tete and Maputo. Guided by the rumbling in our stomachs, we stumbled into a mall (yes, a mall) and ate at the food court. Once our bellies were full with delicious cheap Zimbabwean Chinese food, we hopped into a taxi and went gave him the address of our friend, Blaine.

Blaine is a Zimbabwean friend of ours living in Mozambique who happened to be home in Harare for a visit at the same time we were there. Generously, he invited all of us to stay at his house. He showed us around his hometown, introduced us to his crazy but fun family, and took us to all the best places in Harare.

We didn't exactly get a "genuine" experience of Harare in the sense that a vast majority of the population lives very differently from Blaine and his family, but it was nice all the same. One of the places Blaine took us to was a really fancy shopping center that would look at home in any British suburb -- and upon entering this complex, we got the answer to the question that had been nagging us since crossing into Mozambique. So this is where all the white people are! During my (admittedly limited) time in Zim, I got the impression that most of the white folks huddle in a bubble, separated from the rest of Zimbabwe -- much more so than in South Africa, Mozambique, or Malawi. This is understandable to an extent, considering Zimbabwe's violent history with race -- if I had an angry mob storm my house and try to kill me and my family, I'd be a bit on edge too -- but it's sad, and it robs both white and black Zimbabweans of a valuable opportunity to exchange cultures and get to know one another. I'm glad to be friends with someone like Blaine, who goes out of his way to be friendly to everyone and not just those that look like him.

Still, it was within this White Bubble that we stayed for the next day or so, and honestly, I didn't complain. It was nice to be among people who got my sarcastic sense of humor and who are as excited about frozen yogurt as I am. Blaine took us to many delicious food places, and he also took us to the Lion and Cheetah Park. Despite the name, there were in fact no cheetahs (which I was disappointed about), but there were lots of lions, including rare white ones, and even a whole building called Snake World. Cool.

Giant galapagos tortoise, came to about mid-thigh on me.

Tiny baby leopard tortoise!

Is this one cool looking white lion or what!?

Careful, guys! This domestic pig might hurt you!

Lisa and Taylor are not enamoured by the snakes.

Green Mambas: Come on, all we want to do is spoon!.... and kill you.

We didn't really do much else in Harare except hang out with Blaine's fun family and eat lots of delicious food. We only had one full day, after all, and then we had to mosey on back to Mozambique for part three of our glorious adventure.

After taking this trip, lots of people back home asked me about Zimbabwe. "What's it like?" they said with big eyes, almost as if I had ventured into North Korea. Honestly, Zimbabwe was... weird. I could tell it used to be very developed, and I can see why all my Zimbo friends talk about it like a promised land. But it feels very empty and very alien. People just kind of mill about, not doing much, and not excited about it. Everything was much quieter than Mozambique. More organized for sure, but somehow less fun. Maybe this is the effect of the British influence versus those crazy Portuguese? I don't know.

One thing that I did find amusing was how western Zim is considering how anti-West the president is. Most of Zimbabwe looks weirdly like Britain from a few decades ago, as if a zombie apocalypse hit, but there are no zombies. The weirdest thing is that Zimbabwe uses the American dollar as currency -- and they are the grossest dollars I have ever seen in my life. Think of the nastiest, greasiest, most-drug-covered 20 dollar bill in your wallet and multiply that by ten, and that's the gross factor of Zimbabwean dollars. Weirdly, there are also a bunch of $2 bills in circulation. Even more weirdly, there is no American change -- change is given in rand, with 1 rand being roughly equivalent to 10 cents. If you pay for a 50c stick of gum with a dollar, expect to get 5 rand back. I don't understand why they don't just use rand exclusively -- seems easiest, considering every country around them except Mozambique does.

Zimbabwe was, in a word, surreal. I'm glad I was able to visit, but I'm not sure I'll be going back anytime soon. The people were super friendly, and everything was cleaner and more modern than in Mozambique, but...I feel at home in Moz. After five days in Zim, I missed Mozambique -- so we made our way back to the Mozambican border, and onward to the next part of our journey...

...which you will read about in a few days.


NEXT UP: Cahora Bassa: The Lake that Powers Southern Africa (a.k.a. I got to ride a jet-ski!)