CYA!

September 19 & 20, 2025 | Eat, Pray, Love: Africa Edition

Some places are so beautiful, so breathtaking, and so powerful that is it impossible to fully capture it on camera. Victoria Falls is that type of place for me. And just when you think it’s all serenity and rainbows… the baboons enter the chat. 🐒 

Welcome to Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 

Checking In: Kabakwe Guest Lodge 🔑

I stayed at Kabakwe Guest Lodge — super cute, cozy, and calm. One thing about this lodge: they have you put your dinner order in ahead of time, so I went ahead and did that. For me, travel days are for survival mode, not extra activities. So I unpacked a bit, sanitized my room (because that’s just a must do ritual), freshened up and then went to dinner.

Dinner was simple and solid: steak and fries with what I can only describe as a tiny side salad. Not bad, just… you know… tiny. 😂

And honestly that was the vibe for arrival day: settle in, eat, and rest.

Best of Both Sides: Same Falls, Totally Different Mood 🌈

Day 2 — the day I’d been waiting for. I booked the “Zimbabwe & Zambia: Guided Tour of the Falls from Both Sides” excursion with Cuckoo Safaris through GetYourGuide.

If you visit Mosi-oa-Tunya, the indigenous name for Victoria Falls, meaning “The Smoke That Thunders” it’s highly recommended to experience both sides of the falls, from both Zimbabwe and Zambia.

This was an all-day excursion. But honestly? I could go to Victoria Falls and just sit there for hours. I’m talking Muni Long hours.

It’s serene, it’s powerful, it’s beautiful. The kind of place where you don’t even realize how long you’ve been standing because you’re just in awe taking in Mother Nature’s best work.

And going with a guide made it even better because you’re learning while you’re exploring.

On the Zimbabwe side there are 16 viewpoints, each one offering a slightly different angle of the Falls. Our guide, Shelton, was very knowledgeable and shared history about David Livingstone and his documentation of the Falls, plus the history of the iconic Victoria Falls Bridge and its designer George A. Hobson, and other fun facts about the Falls, fauna, and flora. 

And because I was with a guide, it wasn’t just pretty views — it was like a fun history class with rainbow sightings along the way.

👩🏾‍🏫 I learned things like:

• The Victoria Falls rainforest area is created by the constant mist from the falls — it’s the only place in the world where is always raining (24/7, 365 days).
  • Thankfully, it was mostly a light drizzle for us, but that could be due to the time of year.
• The falls recede by about 3 cm each year, so you won’t notice a difference unless you come back in about 100 years.
• Erosion is cutting into the Falls all the way to Zambia creating new falls. 
  • Currently, Victoria Falls is comprised of five main waterfalls – The Devils Cataract, the Main Falls, the Horseshoe Falls, the Rainbow Falls and the Eastern Cataract.
• The falls can drop up to 500 million liters per minute.
  • This volume of water drops massively throughout the year, each week it will be a different view.

Once we finished the Zimbabwe side, we got picked up, crossed Victoria Falls Bridge, and entered Zambia with a new guide. Before arriving I made sure to get the KAZA Univisa to make sure crossing the border was as close to a no-headache no-problem experience as possible. Crossing the border is a process — customs, immigration, lines, locals and tourist going back and forth constantly — so yes, it can feel hectic. But it didn’t ruin the experience and our Zambia tour guide did an amazing job to ensure the process was smooth for us.

Our new guide Delphister was amazing. She too was very knowledgeable about Mosi-oa-Tunya, the Bridge, and the history connected to the region.

Now Zambia had much fewer viewpoints, but still stunning in a different way. Walking across and viewing the falls from Knife Edge Bridge. Loved it! While the bridge felt VERY stable in my opinion, you could see and sense the fear from others when walking across it.  

Now this part was fascinating: the falls looked completely different depending on which side we were on.

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel 👉🏾 here, where I will be sharing POV vlogs of my full Mosi-oa-Tunya experience from both sides.

Not One, Not Two but A Troop of Baboons 🐒

Now let’s talk about the baboons! Listen. I don’t play about monkeys. Crossing into Zambia, while at the boarder post I quickly spotted one baboon casually strutting across like he owned the road.

Cool. Fine. He was far enough away that I wasn’t completely alarmed. 

But later during the tour, we’re walking down these steps and there were a few just sitting along the edge of the steps. We calming walked past those. I made sure to keep my distance because monkeys can be bold, they can snatch things, and they do not play fair. Honestly, I was waiting for one of them to reach out and grab somebody’s ankle. Next thing I know, we stop walking and a whole baboon family is coming up the stairs. Like generations y’all. The mamas, babies, aunties, uncles, cousins, everybody.

We stood to the side in a single-file line until the biggest male baboon passed — and I’m not going to lie, I positioned myself behind a child, and did! That was too close for comfort for me, but I survived. 

And of course when we were leaving the park I saw another random baboon headed toward the curio markets where I was headed to next. 😩 Luckily, by the time I made it over there the baboon was no longer in the vicinity of where I was going. 

I did catch some of it on video though, because content is content, even when I’m afraid. 😂

While waiting for our driver, I grabbed a few souvenirs — magnets, little gifts — and yes a Zambia painting for my collection of course. 🤗

Reflections from the Falls 💭

Yes, we have to have a moment of reflection. 🤔 I mean…this wouldn’t be an Eat Pray Love journey without one.

Yes Mosi-oa-Tunya is a breathtaking Natural Wonder of the World AND it’s a reminder that perspective changes everything. What looks one way from one angle might reveal something brand new from another. Sometimes you need to step back, shift, or look again to see the full picture.

As I mentioned, the Zimbabwe side alone has 16 viewpoints. SIXTEEN. So at a certain point, and understandably so, it’s like “Okay, I get it. I’ve seen the falls.” 

But here’s the thing: every viewpoint gave me a slightly different angle, a slightly different experience. 

Sometimes powerful and rushing 😯
Sometimes serene and relaxing 😌
Sometimes obscured by mist 😶‍🌫️ …and
Sometimes bare and revealing, or “less impressive” 😐 

Same falls, different perspective. 

A good metaphor for life. Sometimes you need to see the same thing from multiple perspectives to understand it fully. The shift in angle changes what you notice. It helps you see the whole picture.

So even when I thought, “Okay this is the same waterfall,” it wasn’t. The perspective kept changing.

And that felt like the point

Wrap-Up 💜

Victoria Falls gave me scenic landscape, rainforest energy, gentle mist, passport stamps, and baboon fright — all in one day. And I loved it. I left feeling both exhausted from the sun and filled with awe. Seeing the Falls from both Zimbabwe and Zambia gave me a deep appreciation for one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

But the real surprise? Came later that night… when I stumbled across a pamphlet at my lodge advertising a traditional Zimbabwean dinner.

So naturally… I had to go.

Next up: The best meals I’ve had since landing on the continent and a new core memory unlocked.

– CYA! ✌🏾