Flying into Zimbabwe? Do yourself a favor: sit as far to the front of the plane as possible. When you witness the immigration process at Victoria Falls Airport, you’ll understand why. It’s a slow, manual, maddening process — probably for both us and the immigration officers. Key elements include unlocked drawers stuffed to the brim with foreign currency, visa numbers plucked from the air and yelled out loud to avoid reuse at adjacent desks, and furious scribbling and stamping. Despite having computers at the desks, computers play no part in this process, something we’d see over and over again in our border crossings.
A long wait and a short ride later, we were dropped off at the Sprayview Hotel, which gave us our first indication of the economic situation in Zimbabwe. The country has experienced a lot of difficulty over the past several years including political unrest, massive breakdowns in agricultural production and major industries, and rampant inflation — currently in the neighborhood of 9000%. Shortly before we went, the government created a $200K bill, printed on only one side to save ink. It’s extremely difficult to get supplies and recent import restrictions and pricing requirements have only made the situation worse.
The Sprayview is on the outskirts of town and most definitely does not have a view of the spray from the Falls. The hotel was clearly a lovely place a few decades ago, but it was very much showing signs of decline. The rooms were old and in disrepair, the pool was suspiciously cloudy, and they had only four of the 20+ items on the restaurant menu. Despite these difficult conditions, we could not have asked for a more friendly and attentive staff. James felt like a king drinking $60,000 beers pool-side.
We had dinner at the hotel with Kiwis Ian and Edna who we’d met at the airport and would be traveling with us in Botswana. Amanda had the fish for $950,000 (talk about sticker shock!) and we enjoyed a bottle of wine while watching our dinner-side entertainment. Once they broke into “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, we knew we’d be passing on the CD.
Tommorrow on Survivor: Botswana, and getting stranded in the bush without our guide or supplies! (Really, we’re not kidding!)
