One of the things we most wanted to do while in Zimbabwe was go to Great Zimbabwe National Monument. The site was home to a great medieval city serving as a link between the Swahili traders in East Africa to the Bantu speaking peoples of Southern Africa. This city is proof of civilization in Africa long before the colonists arrived.
Formerly known as Rhodesia, one might wonder where the name Zimbabwe came from (or the name Rhodesia for that matter!). Zimbabwe actually means house of the large stones. Scattered across Zimbabwe are the ruins from a great Shona kingdom that ruled the area in the middle ages, but most of these ruins are small scale. All of course, but one- the …

It was hot and humid as we stepped off the bus in Victoria Falls, but that didn’t stop the hawkers from approaching us. Waving thousands, millions, billions and trillions of dollars in our faces, these guys would stop at nothing to make us rich. Finally we relented and for 4 USD we became trillionaires…in a currency that isn’t legal anymore.
While the effects of hyper inflation will be felt in Zimbabwe for years to come, entrepreneurs around the country are cashing in on their worthless paper currency. Printed by the reserve bank in denominations up to 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars, we as well as many other tourists, were happy to snap up a few bills as souvenirsBecoming a trillionaire was easier …

All I knew about Zimbabwe before we arrived in Africa was that it was the country of the evil Mugabe. Shortly after starting the trip we met two travelers who had actually been there who told us when they left the government was unveiling the $750,000 note. We’d eventually heard the country had dollarized and was “more or less” safe but that still didn’t stop the majority of people from asking “why would you go there, you’ll be killed for your shirt!”
The concept of hyperinflation is interesting enough. When our friends traveled through, it was phase one of the hyper-inflated currency…a few months later the government knocked 12 zeros off the money and then started all over again before topping …

A long time ago when we first heard about traveling in Zimbabwe we heard of travelers bringing staples like sugar and rice into the country with them, to be used for barter. With the country going through hyperinflation, unable to trade for much in the way of anything, this was more valuable at the time than money. Before going to Zimbabwe we asked around a bit and were assured that markets were generally stocked and that things had stabilized but that didn’t mean that the barter economy hasn’t evaporated entirely either.
Zimbabwe is now the third country we’ve visited using the US Dollar rather than its own currency. Unlike the other two, Panama and Ecuador, Zimbabwe is far …