Happy Easter.

I feel lucky. I have just returned from a wonderful Easter holiday visiting the beautiful country of Zambia. Home of Victoria Falls. I have to admit that as we were headed to the airport last week we all were a bit confused as to whether or not Victoria Falls was or was not one of the 7 Wonders of the World?  Unfortunately, I still don’t know for sure. There are now apparently several lists of said Wonders of the World…according to some lists Victoria Falls is indeed one of the Wonders. But it’s not on all lists. I had no idea there was such a controversy over this list?


Anyway, we had a great vacation. I traveled with a group of four other volunteers – Emily (who is another community health volunteer from my group) and then two education volunteers, Shilpa and Megan. The first exciting part of the vacation was getting to fly (we didn't use a public taxi on this vacation)!  It’s been a while since I have been in an airport and I was excited to be in such civilization…we had hoped to get to the airport early and enjoy the shops but ended up being a bit hurried (exchanging money and going through long lines) but were treated to drinks and food on the plane. We stayed at a great backpacker in Livingstone (in Zambia). The country definitely had a different feel to it than South Africa and it was fun to meet other Peace Corps volunteers staying at the backpacker – some from Zambia and also from Nambia. We swapped stories and enjoyed hearing about some differences (and also many similarities) of our experiences.

Seeing Victoria Falls was amazing – one unfortunate part is that we were there during the “high season” which means that there is just so much water it’s difficult to see much of the actual waterfall. You just see white puffs of mist/water. It’s still pretty spectacular but doing things like white water rafting or some of the other water stuff is just out of the question. You can walk through the water “mist” and get totally soaked which was fun and then we walked to the bottom of a trail to see the view from the bottom (and watch people bungee jump from the bridge - which I did not do.  Sorry).

We enjoyed a sunset cruise down the Zambezi River, crashing a couple of the very nice hotels during the day to enjoy their pools, views of the falls, and food, as well as a game drive in Botswana where we visited Chobe National Park…and also ran into Chuck and Michelle (the couple that I have vacationed with during my last two vacations)! Surprisingly we stumbled upon them while we were having breakfast before our game drive in Botswana (totally unplanned) and then got to enjoy spending a couple of days with them before we left (I am just meant to vacation with them it seems)?!

I really do feel lucky that I have been able to travel in such an amazing place. I don’t know how one could see all there is to see in a lifetime here in Africa. But I will certainly do what I can and enjoy every minute.

Enjoy my pictures (I still have to get some from Emily but this is a start)!