Vic Falls 3

So, needless to say, the Boma was completely amazing. I really wish we could go back and do it again, I think I'd enjoy it every bit as much! So, Tuesday was our final day in Victoria Falls. We decided to check out the shopping - despited our feigned disinterest, we were quite impressed with some of the carvings the street hawkers had approached us with. We bravely headed out from our hotel, ready to face the masses. Soon enough, we were approached not by a street hawker, but actually a nice young man with a legitimate shop. "Would you like to see the market?" he asked politely. We agreed and he headed us off down the street. We went down a side street and immediately found the shops. He encouraged us to look at the shops, then he would show us the open air marker. We cruised through the shops, but it seemed obvious to us that this was where most of the tourists stopped, and we figured that we wouldn't get the best prices here. With the young man's gentle encouragement, we headed further down the street to the open market. We passes a small mall, but that wasn't it. A small dirt road went around the corner of the mall, and not for the first time, we wondered where these people of Vic Falls were taking us. Around the corner, we saw an area that looked like a shanty-town - all tin rooves propped up with poles.

We entered the area, completely amazed to find the shanty town was all different booths of locals selling their wares. There must have been at least 40 booths! We were the only tourists there of any colour, which had it's pros and cons. It was a con because we got majorly hassled by every seller there, but a pro, because this is a very slow time of year for tourism, and with all the choices before us, we could be picky and walk away, which got us really good prices. Part of me was thrilled by the bargains, but part of me felt guilty for almost taking advantage of their desperation. We made a tentative plan - walk through the entire thing before settling on any particular item. Most things were similar through the entire place - all had serpentine stone carvings of animals and people, wood carvings of the same in iron wood, Rhodesian teak (shouldn't that have changed with the name of the country and be Zimbabwean teak?), mahogany, ebony and makwa. Sizes ranged from pocket sized to far to large to get on a plane. Also interspersed was some jewelry, bowls, and a few other things. When we reached one back corner of the area, I was quite amused by the seller who invited us to his "air conditioned shop" as it was all open in the back, allowing the breeze through. He was thrilled to find out we were Canadian, and proudly showed off his Canadian flag he had flying in his area. He promised us 2 for 1 just for being Canadian. Unfortunately, nothing in his area really appealed to us, and I doubt that second item's price wouldn't have been made up in the price of the first item. After a long time, as you have to meet each booth owner, and convince them you were just looking at everything before buying, we finally made it through. We stood slightly away from the booths to discuss what we liked, speaking in soft, rapid-fire english in the hopes they weren't overhearing too much. Then it was time to enter the fray.

As soon as you express any interest in one particular item in one booth, the owners of the surrounding booths quickly descended with their most similar items in the hopes you'd like theirs better. For example, we started to look at one particularly nice carved elephant, but soon found 5 more elephants held out to us - "I give you a good deal! How much to you want to pay?". Despite wanting to hit the waterhole again before heading to the airport, we took our time to find the items that we most wanted - usually picking out the more unique ones. At one booth, the guy decided he really liked Garn's t-shirt, and wanted to bargain for it. He offered "anything" in his booth to trade for the t-shirt. I immediately started looking at the biggest and most expensive, but figured that wasn't going to work. Garn picked out a beautiful iron wood wall carving with 3 elephants that we both knew was worth more than his t-shirt, but it was what we both liked the most at his booth. "Well," he admitted, "maybe a few dollars with the t-shirt." Yeah, we figured that. Garn did settle on an amount we were happy with, and really, truly gave him the shirt off his back. This is still his favourite story from Vic Falls. :)

Many items are apparently difficult for them to find, as we had offers for our shoes, Garn's shorts (they'd come back to the hotel with us to collect), my bandana, my water bottle, Garn's watch, and even the dirty, sweaty socks off my feet!! One guy in particular was really intent on getting my waterbottle. It is metal, shiny red, and I got it free from a union meeting (my coworkers should be happy to know there is now a UNA contingent in Zimbabwe!). It isn't expensive, it's not insulated or anything, and he really liked it. I held out for a while, but when he finally offered a straight-across trade for a stone carving of a leopard, complete with spots, I caved and handed over the bottle. We were both happy. I'm hoping that isn't abuse of union stuff and that I can get another one someday, as the strap was just the right size to clip it around my waist, which was really convenient for hiking. Then I look at the leopard and I smile. :)

All in all, we probably got too much stuff, but with the deals we were making, it was hard to resist. There's still a few items that I think about, but we're not looking to redecorate the entire house, lol! It was actually a lot of fun, and we're learning a lot about bargaining. I learned how to get my bottom price on a couple items that we actually did pay cash for, so I feel pleased with my new skills. Off we went back to the waterhole.

It was midday at this point, so I was really not holding out much hope of seeing anything come by, but we went anyway. The view alone it beautiful, and the allure of ice-cold cokes is strong when we don't always have enough power to make anything super cold and coke is not all that available. There were a lot of storks and other large birds flying around when we got there, so we had fun trying to get pictures of them in flight with their huge wingspans. Then, amazingly, down the hill came 3 elephants!! This trio of bachelors came down cautiously, then enjoyed a good drink, a splash and then a dust bath. How awesome!! What great timing! (Someone's sure looking out for us all along this trip!) Soon it was time to get to the airport and say goodbye to Vic Falls. Sunday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon definatly wasn't enough time, but it was wonderful while it lasted!