September 7, 2010

Awesome long weekend trip!














Note: I am not able to download pictures and I keep on trying since yesteday!! I promise as soon as I can you'll see a lot! ---- I am able now! from Intercontinental Hotel
Thusday 2/09/2010:
So on Thursday afternoon I took a local long/distance bus to spend the weekend in Livingstone and to join any safari nearby...The bus station of Lusaka is a complete chaos of people, fake parfum vendors, cutlery vendors (for foreign i guess) workers, inter/country buses (botswana, malawi, zimbabwe...) Not very confortable for sitting down to wait a bus. However bus arrived on time,..and only 2 hours later it suffered a breakdown. We stayed in the middle of nowhere for nearly 3 hours to wait for a new repaired bus...Meanwhile I started talking with two guys that looked european travellers...and in fact they were staying in the same hostel as me in Livingstone, so we shared amusing trip despite the conditions. The new bus arrived, so continued the trip..and only 20kms before Livingstone the new bus attempted to suffer a new breakdown,..that finally could be amended. So when we arrived at the Jollyboys backpackers hostel, the bar had closed, but one of this guys persuaded somebody to sell us cold beers...so we chilled out in the nice African hall of the hostel, before going to bed (after a 10 hours trip..). We shared the same dorm.
Friday 3/09/2010:
Next day we went together to visit the amazing Victoria falls,..God..it's stunning! wonderful..I think I suffered the syndrom of Stendhal again :-) Because of the flows of water falling (900.000 litres per second, i think) it causes a sound called the Thunder. You also see the rainbow in the middle of the falls. See the pictures better...After a long sightseeing walk, we went to the upper side of Zambezi to chill legs into the water for a while. Some local zambians offered themselves to take you (walking into the water) till the edge of falls...I preferred not to risk my life so easily.. Instead, I came back to hostel to have a bath in the small pool. In the afternoon I booked a Sunset cruise in the most charming boat..The African's Queen. Beautiful views along the Zambezi river at Sunset. I always think about "Out of Africa". In the boat I met a couple of spanish people just married! they came from SouthAfrica and were travelling around. As it was the first time any of us met some spaniards in Zambia we celebrated it ordering for Gin cokes with our canapes dinner on board..(included in the price!)
So I came back to hostel so gin/happily that I convinced these guys (the austrian and the german young doctors) to go out. We found a place of makishi dancers (the typical african dancers) very amusing!! They performed most of the time the same song dancing a lot, and next to this group, another performance of an african singer (dressed in chitenge, as most part of women here). So we spent long time in this funny place. tHE only non african people, us.
Saturday 4/09/10: Next day, these guys were going on rafting (I would have loved to join them but I already have booked my activity) so I went to Botswana for a safari day and night. It was so exciting!! during all the morning i did a canoe safari through the river, and from mid/day the inland safari in the Chobe National Park, enormous land plenty of giraffes, elephants, impalas, warthog, birds, and also could see the beautiful leopards (it was a matter of patience and time)! All of the day into a Jeep without velts nor windows and running so fast specially when elephants seemed angry with us...At sunset we arrived to the compound to sleep, in the middle of the savannah. I slept in an individual tent on the floor with the only light of my torch (hopefully I remembered to put it into my bag), and the sound of wild life...The guide men left a fire burning all night to avoid animals coming near, despite they come sometimes (elephants) at night. We were told not to go out from tents to pee until it was extremely urgent .. Before going to bed we had a dinner sitting in the chairs around the fire and with the torch in left hand to light the food dish. I slept very well! and didnt feel afraid of the strange sounds...We wake up very early to see the sunrise, and the lions!! we got to see 5, 2 males and 3 females...But my low battery ran out only few seconds before watching lions. Then, I came back to Zambia, crossed the Botswana border (passing the cleaning mandatory steps to avoid transferring the mouth&feet animals illness), and arrived to hostel. I had a quick lunch with Dara and Davud, and said goodbye with a hug! I really liked these guys. they are travelling around southern Africa now, but in past they did their doctors training in countries like SouthAFrica or Armenia and Barbados. Brave boys! They are invited to visit me in Madrid:-)
Before taking the bus, I bought chitenge materials, and took the bus. This time bus was better, and we arrived on time to Lusaka..I also shared seat with a very kind zambian guy who loves MTV so much! he was excited of having met me , hahahahah!!
Pd/ i am updating posts with pics today, and previous posts as it was impossible before due to viruses in downloading that even attacked my camera !!

8 comments:

  1. Qué envidia me das Pilar!!!!! Jo, me gustaría estar también allí!!!! Besos y sigue disfrutado mucho tu aventura africana! :)

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  2. Pilar, I'm so so so jealous of your trip! I wish I was out there, exploring the wilderness with you. Your blog entries are keeping Neil and I entertained! Good on you for the good work you're doing! Apeksha

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  3. Thanks Apeksha, Marta, and Neil! hey Apeksha, i will forward to you the pictures i am taking with EduSport, i think you need them, right? Skomo kuambi!

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  4. ¡¡Qué emocionante Pili!! Quiero ver tooodas las fotos a tu vuelta!! Jajajaja, si te cuento lo que es el African's Queen en Alcalá city.....

    Por cierto, lo del virus en el ordenador el otro día....¡pa habernos matao!

    Sigue disfrutando, y tú tb eres una brave girl!!!!

    ISTHAR

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  5. después d leer tus aventuras x áfrica ganas me dan d hacer la maleta y bajarme d continente... ya me contarás q tal la experiencia con celine "dion", si sacó en la barbacoa el látigo o la mosquitera..... juasssssss

    carpe africam q ya t queda poco.. los rascacielos the la big apple are waiting 4 uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.....

    ayer estuve con rocio y yuja... nos lo pasamos d lux, rocio contándome sus aventuras con león x irlanda...

    besos!

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  6. probaste un sorbito d las cataratas victoria bechkam?? dicen q son buenas para el colesterol...

    x cierto muy buena la foto q has colgado d los makishi dancers... pero dónde está escondido lukas skywalker??

    ayer estuve con rocío y yuha, me desternillaba con las historias d rocío x irlanda martirizando al incombustible león....

    ok guys... over there...

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  7. vaya, he repetido el comentario d rocío y yuha... en q estaría yo pensando.....

    sorry.

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