CAPE TOWN BIRTHDAY

October marked five months in Zimbabwe, and I was starting to get antsy for a change of scenery.  As my birthday was also in October, we decided to observe the occasion by taking a week off and heading to Cape Town, South Africa.  A direct flight from Harare to Cape Town on RwandaAir had us in a whole new world in under four hours.  Cheap (and amazing!) food and wine!  Well paved roads!  We celebrated both with equal enthusiasm.

Heading out for a boat tour of the waterfront, with obligatory sparkling in hand.

A lovely way to see the Cape Town waterfront.

We didn't just drink wine - we also drank fancy coffee!

A stroll through the colorful Bo Kaap neighborhood

We started with a few nights in Cape Town itself, and fully immersed ourselves in all possible tourist activities.  A few loops on the Cape Wheel (think London Eye… but on the Cape Town waterfront)?  Check.  A boat tour of Cape Town harbor?  Yep.  A walking tour of some of the historic neighborhoods?  Done.  A hike through Kirstenbosch botanic gardens and up (and then back down) Table Mountain?  You bet.  (Although that last one almost killed me.  The Table Mountain hike took about four hours and was almost exclusively steps… and a few ladders.  I felt every bit of my 29+20 years for the next several days.)

The skywalk trail in Kirstenbosch botanic garden.

View from (almost) the top of Table Mountain.

Even with all of those things checked off the list, there was a ton that we didn’t get to do – Robben Island, museums, and so many great restaurants left unvisited (for a reason…  Alas, I brought a stomach bug from Zim with me to Cape Town so wasn’t able to enjoy solid food for a few days.)  Cape Town is absolutely beautiful with the ocean surrounded by mountains.  With so much still to do, and with such a gorgeous backdrop, I know we will be back.

Hard to beat the views along the Cape Peninsula.

We managed the first few days in Cape Town without a car and just used Uber (Uber! Another source of excitement!) to get around the city.  But for our last day in Cape Town (and our onward journey from there), we rented a car and drove down the Cape Peninsula to Cape Point.  It was a gorgeous drive and the weather could not have been more spectacular.  Oh, and did I mention there are penguins on the Cape Peninsula?  That was a major highlight.

Good advice.

Watch out!  They are (apparently) vicious!

One of these things is not like the others...

Pretty sure this was one of the nicest days at Cape Point ever.

The Cape Point Lighthouse, and some helpful directions.

The road along the Cape Peninsula was a Big Sur-esque model of engineering.

From Cape Town, we headed inland to the western cape wine country.  We spent a couple nights in a town called Tulbagh and then headed to another town called Franschhoek for a few nights… and sampled lots of the local wines in both spots.  The valleys were beautiful!  Steep mountains, green valleys, vineyards, birds.  The wineries were pretty spectacular too - posh architecture and expansive views of the valleys.  And the wine was delicious - and cheap too!  I mean, we were doing serious research so we would know what wines to buy if we ever see them for sale in Zim.  (Even though most places we asked said they did not export to Zimbabwe... because nothing exports to Zim.)  Perhaps our steadfast research will benefit you.  If you ever see Glenwood, Boschendal, Le Lude, or Haute Cabriere labels, give them a shot.  (We actually found some of that last one on the shelves of the embassy commissary.  Score!) 

The Tulbagh valley.

Rijks - the hotel/winery where we stayed in Tulbagh.

Andrew doing serious research! 

The view coming into Franschhoek.

The grounds at Boschendal.

Views of the winery and Franschhoek valley.

Fog rolling over the Franschhoek mountains.

Our hotel in Franschhoek had a Nellie-like pooch named Bella.  Bonus!

The tasting room at Haute Cabriere.

Sunset at Haute Cabriere...

...with some brut rose?  Don't mind if I do.

And more sparkling at La Lude?  Don't mind if I do that either.

A memorable birthday in many ways, and we can’t wait to go back to see what we missed (and to continue our wine research).

ALL WORK AND ALL PLAY

Sunset in the Zambezi River Valley

Two months since my last blog post???  The time is flying by.  Just like that, I’ve been on the job four months and our tour in Zimbabwe is 1/6 complete.  Somehow, the time here seems to be moving more quickly than our time in Belize.  Could be because it takes so much longer to get things done here – things that seem like they should take a day can take a week, so that makes time pass more quickly.  Why do things take longer, you ask?  Alas, the economic and political situation in Zimbabwe presents daily challenges.  Electricity is off for as much as 16 hours a day.  We are lucky because we have a generator to fill the void, but most Zimbabweans are up in the wee hours of the night to take care of chores during the few hours they have power.  Gas (or petrol, as it’s called here) is in short supply.  Most gas stations are closed at any given time, and those that have fuel also have lines stretching for a quarter mile or more.  

This is what a "fuel queue" looks like.

A couple months back, the government announced overnight that U.S. dollars would no longer be accepted as legal tender, but there is also a shortage of physical “bond notes” (the local currency) and the highest denomination of those bills is ZW$5 (the equivalent today of about 25 cents).  Everyone is reliant on debit cards or “EcoCash” – a kind of bitcoin-esque electronic currency – to make purchases, but that can be challenging when there’s no power for the card readers or no cell service to allow for the electronic funds to change hands.  In the last few weeks, traders have quietly gone back to accepting U.S. dollars – often, quite literally, under the table since, in theory, it is still illegal to conduct business in U.S. dollars.  And the government has no mercy on folks who act out against them.  State security agents regularly abduct and torture members of the political opposition and activists who dare to protest against the government.  And my job is to report back to Washington on all these events.  Makes for never a dull moment at the office.  Also makes for a good reason to take advantage of all opportunities to get away from the day-to-day realities… and go on safari!

We had an extra-long local holiday weekend in August, so we headed up to a national park called Mana Pools along the Zambezi River on the northern border with Zambia.  It took a 5-hour drive and a 1-hour boat ride to get there, but it was soooooo worth it.  We stayed at an amazing “glamping” resort right on the river with amazing guides who took us out on game drives in the mornings and afternoons to see all the incredible wildlife.  And we saw everything – lions, leopard, elephants, water buffalo, all manner of antelope and birds.  Fair warning – lots of safari photos below.

Hippos!

Elephants!

Tweety in drag!  (Or a lilac-breasted roller, if you prefer.)

Tweety in flight.

Our guides were amazing at spotting creatures.

Hello, water buffalo.

Awwwww...

Living his best life.

We also visited a few spots closer to Harare, including a little spot called Balancing Rocks that has all sorts of huge stacked granite boulders, and a smaller game reserve called Pamuzinda that has no predators, so we were able to go on foot – and on horseback* – to get much closer to the animals.   

These stacked rocks - or kopjes - are scattered all around Harare.

Yee-haw.

Post-ride gin and tonics - definitely more my speed.

(* First time on horseback for me in probably 30 years.  It was a great experience to walk amongst giraffes and other creatures… but I walked like Hopalong Cassidy for the next 24 hours and was reminded why I hadn’t been on a horse for 30 years.)

Another highlight of Zimbabwe so far is without doubt the weather.  We’ve had one cloudy day in the four months we’ve been here.  The temperature is perfect, no humidity, no bugs!  So in the rare moments that our generator is off and it’s peaceful outside, we get to enjoy our wonderful front porch and yard.  We have a gardener who keeps the grounds in tip-top shape, and he even planted a vegetable garden when we moved in two months ago that is paying off big time.  We’re swimming in lettuce at the moment, and about to be up to our eyeballs in tomatoes.

Best looking vegetable garden ever!

Hopefully it won’t be another two months before I get another post up.  But if so, at least you’ll know what’s keeping us busy.  It’s all work and all play down here.

ONE STEP AT A TIME

We’re coming up on two months of calling Zimbabwe our new home.  Of course, we spent most of that time living in a hotel since our house was not yet ready.  Fortunately, we bought a car (two, actually) from departing colleagues as soon as we got here, so within a week of arriving, we had wheels.  We took every opportunity to get out of our hotel room and start figuring out our way around. 

Step one… Learn to drive a right-hand side car on the left-hand side of the road.  Old hat for Andrew, but I was a bit more skeptical.  But I’ve got to say, after a week or so of turning my windshield wipers on instead of my blinkers, I’ve got it figured out and it seems pretty natural now.  

 

Day 1 driving on the right-hand side.  Wondering what sheer terror looks like?  That's it.

Step two… Find some cool spots to go in Harare.  Andrew had to head back to the States for work a few weeks after we arrived.  Alone on a weekend and starting to feel stir-crazy in the hotel, I figured I’d check out a nature park about 15 minutes away called Mukuvisi Woodlands.  It did not disappoint.  It ended up being a 300+ acre park that had an open grassland area with some resident wildlife, as well as a whole network of well-marked walking trails through open woodlands.  I spent several hours walking around there, and it felt great to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather here.  (It has been sunny and in the 70s during the day since we’ve been here.  It cools off to the 40s at night.  No humidity.  No rain.  Hardly a cloud.  AMAZING.)

 

Giraffes, and zebras, and antelopes... oh my.

Everyone loves a good watering hole.

Along the hiking trail.  

Step three… Venture further afield.  I’m on a work schedule that has me working longer hours Monday-Thursday and then alternating Fridays off, which means I get a 3-day weekend every other week.  Handy.  We turned one of those 3-day weekends into an out-of-town getaway to the Vumba Mountains on the eastern border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.  We were up at a higher elevation (even higher than Harare, which is about 5,000ft), so the vegetation was different, the views were lovely, and the weather was cooler (i.e., COLD at night).  We stayed in a fairly rustic cabin with no electricity and made a fire in the fireplace each night, played cards, and read. 

 

View from our Vumba cabin,

That's Mozambique over yonder.

The first morning, we went on a guided bird walk.  I’m sure we were our guide's favorite customers ever because every bird was a new bird for us.  We also stopped for coffee and cake at a little place called Tony’s, and then visited a botanic garden for another stroll through the great outdoors. 

You knew you'd have to look at some bird pics, right?  Livingstone's turaco.

Variable sunbird.

 

Not a bird.  Can't escape monkeys - or, in this case, baboons - no matter where I go.

A lovely stroll through the botanic gardens.

All that bird watching and strolling works up quite an appetite.  Coffee and cake at Tony's.

 Post-coffee and cake lazing around.

The second day, we checked out an annual arts and crafts fair that just happened to be scheduled while we were there.  Perfect timing.  The drive to Vumba took about four hours, but the scenery was incredible – open savannah punctuated by kopjes (huge, stacked granite boulders… just in the middle of nowhere) and kraals (little settlements of a few round mud huts with thatch roofs).  Somehow I ended up without photos of any of that… but we’ve got 22 months to go, so plenty more opportunities.  Stay tuned.

Step four...  Settle in.  Last weekend, we finally got to move into our house, and some of our stuff that was shipped here has arrived.  That means we’ve spent this week living among boxes and trying to settle in. 

 

The new homestead, complete with front-yard pool.  That tree is a plumeria.  Looking forward to seeing it in bloom.

That big green box in the background is our generator.  More on this below.

Step five… Expect the unexpected.  So far we’ve had a mix of pleasant surprises… and unpleasant ones too.  The fact that our Vumba cabin had no electricity was not a surprise.  NOTHING has electricity in Zimbabwe right now.  A political and economic crisis has left the country in total chaos.  Power is only on for a few hours a day in the wee hours of the night.  We have a generator that is running almost constantly so we don’t feel the effects too much, but the locals certainly have a very different experience.  Of course, away from the house it's a different story since no electricity means no traffic lights and no street lights, so driving - especially at night - is not for the timid.  

There are also fuel shortages.  I’d guess that about one in every five gas stations is actually open at any given time, and those that are often have “queues” of 50+ cars waiting to fill up.  

Currency is also a complete snafu here.  When we arrived, U.S. dollars were accepted, as well as local currency consisting of paper “bond notes” as well as an electronic currency called “RTGS (real time gross settlement)” that transfers money via a phone app or debit card.  However, about two weeks after we got here, the government announced overnight that U.S. dollars were no longer legal tender and that only local currency would be accepted.  Problem is that local bond notes are in incredibly short supply, and the highest domination is $5 (or about 50 U.S. cents).  And RTGS transfers through the app or debit cards rely on card readers or cell data... both of which need electricity… which is off most of the time.  As a result, several places have started quietly accepting U.S. dollars again - although the transactions have to take place in a back office or, literally, under the table.

Today's surprise is that phone lines - land lines and cell service - are out of service across the city.  Who knows what surprises will await us tomorrow and what the next step will be?