Lions, cheetahs and the caves of Chinhoyi

No, the lions and cheetahs were not in the caves (thankfully)...

My friend from the UK, Samone, seemed to enjoy her visit to Zimbabwe. She was here from Wednesday of last week until early Tuesday morning. I was mostly showing her in and around Harare, but we also went to the Chinhoyi caves (a couple of hours northwest of the city).

On Friday night we went to the Small World Lodge for salsa night - it was the first time I had gone salsa dancing since I've come to Africa (and it was amazing). Apparently a bunch of people go dancing there every Friday, it's a lesson followed by social dancing for the rest of the night. Unfortunately they are taking a break for several weeks/months and last Friday was the last time it will be happening for a while :( bummer!!

The "Sleeping Pool Cave" in Chinhoyi

I've been spending a lot more time with my friend from work Trust lately. He is the one that I work most closely with and we share an office. I'm training him to update and maintain the website (the sustainability part of my project). This past weekend he took us to Chinhoyi - an area a couple of hours northwest of Harare famous for the caves that are located just outside the town. It was good to see a different part of the country and the caves were pretty interesting. One led us to a pond of clear, bright blue water, colored by the reflection from the sky above, and the other... was pretty dark :) but just as cool to see, and quite entertaining, as some in our group were getting scared of the changing shades on the walls formed by the quick movement of our flashlights (see all my pictures from Chinhoyi).

Not surprisingly soccer (or football as they call it anywhere but in the U.S.) is pretty popular here. People enjoy playing it, but they also get very excited about watching it - especially the games from the English Premier League. Well, last weekend Arsenal was playing Liverpool. Samone is from London and she supports Arsenal, and we were all invited to watch the game at a friend of mine's house, who's a Liverpool supporter :) The game finished tied, so there wasn't as much teasing as expected :)

Petting a lion!

Monday was the Zimbabwean Independence Day - a national holiday in the country and so I didn't have to go to work. Instead we went to the Lion and Cheetah Park, about 20 kilometers from Harare. This was my first time there and I was very impressed. We drove right next to some of the lions, and Samone and I even got inside the cage with a couple of lion cubs and played with them for a bit - it was intense! The park was almost like a full-blown zoo. We saw a bunch of other animals - monkeys, wild pigs, crocodiles, tortoises. In fact one of the tortoises we saw was 300-years-old and pretty heavy at 500kg! There was also an area of the park where we could do a game drive, like in a safari, and see animals in their natural habitat. We didn't have much time for that, but it was still good to see some animals. No giraffes or elephants though... and I really wanted to finally see some elephants, maybe next time :)