Zambia - The Other Mozambique

The short flight from Jo'burg to Lusaka could leave one to believe that such a drastic change in environment, culture and cityscape would not be expected. On the contrary, Arianna and I settled into the shabby hostel in Lusaka with the swarms of mosquitos late Monday night after a long, dark ride from the rundown 'Lusaka International Airport.' After double-checking that I was on the proper anti-Maleria med regiment, we set out to explore Lusaka for a day and begun the task of cobbling together a Zambia route.

Post Jo'burg safety-woes, we were initially a little concerned about aimlessly trodding around town looking like, well, aimless tourists. However, we quickly found the environment to be not only friendly, but inviting with people warmly smiling and greeting us as we walked about. Starting slow, we hit the Lusaka Museum to get a feeling for Lusaka history . Likley not only lacking a curator but a general understanding of the importance of curatorship, the museum was quite a disshelved mess comprised of odd-ball 'collections' and newspaper clippings strewn about in a haphazard fashion. I could safely put this museum up on the 'Top 5 Worst' list. It of course was not with out its few entertaining quarks such as the (I can only assume) real fingertip of a Mr. Abel Nchima from 1961 and a tiny anthropological exhibit of human evolution that culminated in a human skull "discovered in Kabwe in 1995 during the digging of a rubbish pit." I am sure preservationist concerns are low on Zambian priority list, so we respectfully paid our admission fee and left the bullet-ridden museum building.The real highlight was cruising the markets, particularly the City Town Market. Packed with a wide variety of wares for sale, dried fish seemed to be the dominant commodity. Much like China, I (we) got the 'what the hell are you doing here looks', which I have to admit, I strangely miss. The market area began as organized and covered stalls and then sprawled out to narrow and dusty shanty streets. What I found most surprising is the number of people that approached us to take their pictures. It has predominantly been my experience that either people want you to be in their pictures taken from their camera or will ask you to take their picture with your camera and then demand money. But in Lusaka we were approached several times by people asking us to take their picture while striking an exhuberant pose and then not even hanging around long enough to ask for payment. Most thrilling encounter was probably our experience to purchase bus tickets at the station for the next day. The 'middle-men' who helped direct us to the "best bus line" reached a near ecstatic state when we start handing out Arianna's get-me-out-of-jail-free-Obama-buttons. It was real, intense and a site to behold. My only lament is that we did not get any pictures. The point being, our first day in Lusaka was all an early indicator of the unexpected and incredible friendliness of the Zambian people that, in hindsight, made us feel a little bit silly about our gaurded defenses.
The next morning we bused it down the Great East Road with Luangwa National Park, outside Mfuwe, in our sights. The seven hour ride dotted with only a handful of small towns made it apparent that Zambia is pretty sparsely populated. Unable to procur transport to Luangwe NP we holed up in Chipata for the night. Before sunset, we were able to walk the town and were left wondering why everybody so quickly expediates their trip to the Mfuwe via plane, thus completely by-passing friendly and lively Chipata. Testing the waters a little, we ventured out down the crowded and unlit alleys to find a good bar. In contrast to the friendly air of daylight, the night does take on a little bit different of an attitude. We haven't quite put out fingers on it yet as our perceptions are just that at this point, perceptions. So, while we did not feel threatened strolling into the 'locals only bar' we also did not exactly feel welcome. It was something akin to entering your nearby biker bar in your Sunday best. We logged the experience, drank our beers and headed back to the hotel.The next day also marked another list-topper experience for me. If the bumpy ride to Mfuwe in the Toyota minibus (the size of a VW bus) with the other 21 people were any longer than 3 hours, it would be the worst bus ride I have ever had. Nonetheless it safely secured a spot in the top 5. I tried my damnedest to get pics of the scenery hurtling by but most of the near 100 pics I took were all blurred. You can find a few of the successful ones in the 'Chipata Pic' section. It was all worth it though. Feeling somewhat like Ewokes after pitching our tent on a platform in a tree at our campsite, we scheduled our safari rides. With no fences and our campsite immediately adjacent to the park, we were a little surprised when we found we had to be escorted nearly everywhere in the camp, especially at night when the hippos come out. There was always a slight caution in the air as the lions made a pool-side visit the previous day and crocodiles are well and alive here. Sure enough, the elevated tent site was quite welcome as it kept us above the crunching hippos just below, eating grass all night. Of course, the platform does not do a whole lot of good to protect you from the monkey poo-bombings.
Laungwa NP is the largest, and supposedly the best, in Zambia. I can not compare it to other safari parks, but I thought it totally rocked. We did a night drive and morning drive around the park in the Land Rovers. Each trip was about 4 hours and punctuated by coffee and tea time. Our guide and driver, Yotam, was a local who knew the Park and its flora and fauna like the back of his hand. In addition to the obvious game sighting, he took the time to point out tracks and other animal marking, stop to smell various flowers and could answer any question we threw at him. The guides are required to take classes and pass exams before they can be certified. It is an admired job in the area and it is thus no surprise we met several aspiring guides in Mfuwe.
In terms of wildlife, I can't complain. There are estimated to be nearly 20,000 hippos just in the section of the Luangwa river passing through the park. We spotted numerous colorful birds, impalas, pukus and bushbacks. Waterbucks, cape buffalo, zebras, hippos and elephants repeatedly crossed our path. The tops was pulling right up next side to a lion pride. Yotam could not only tell us the given name of the pride but the age and relationships of all eight members, why the male patriarch was not there and how recently they had made a kill. Apparently, Luangwa is 'the best place to spot a leopard in Africa'. Despite the fact that we had no such luck, all in all, the safaris were well worth it. For me, the park had a very different feel than Addo Elephant Park. Most of the animals were skittish around the Landi and we had to work a little to do some spotting. It left me with a sensation that I was observing an environment more similar to the natural, untouched habitat of the wildlife. If it works out, we are hoping to hit North Luangwa Park in the next week or so.
After our last drive, we relaxed away the rest of an afternoon listening to hippo calls and lounging by the river. A stark contrast to the transit back to Lusaka in which we had to wake at 4 am to catch the only van back to Mfuwe before connecting to Lusaka. The ride was interesting, to say the least, and did manage to secure the number one spot in my book as the most ridiculous bus ride I have ever taken. Ten miles down the rode we stopped in the dark to pick up someone while the bus driver commenced to arguing with the passengers about who was going to have to sit on whose lap to accommodate the rider. We then picked up two more passengers. One guy had to ride much of the way with either his legs or butt out the window while somewhat suspended over top of me. Finally, the driver gave in to the passengers complaints and allowed the last passenger to sit half straddled on his lap (the driver's) while he drove. Mind you, it's a manual. I will let you conjure up your own imagery. We eventually ran out of gas 5 km out of town, nearly consistent with the sticker across the windshield that read 'get rich o die tryin.' Fifteen hours later we made it to Lusaka and are now in the process of planning our next steps. We hope to be in Tanzania within the next 10 days.