The Ancient Ruins of Great Zimbabwe

Okay..so this not being able to post pictures is getting old!! I want everyone to see everything but the internet is just not cooperating.  Today we left Nyanga early this morning and set off on a 5.5 hour drive, which turned into a 7 hour drive! Part of it was our doing as we stopped in Mutare to shop a bit and find some bathrooms (which was an experience) and then we stopped again to walk across the Birgenough Bridge (the first suspended bridge in Zimbabwe). But we were also stopped at least 20 times at police road blocks to "check our paperwork" which added at least another hour to the trip.  BUT on the way we bought some roadside snacks, one of which were fried Quelea birds (beaks, feet, and all) which two of the students were brave enough to try, and I was soooo proud! They both said that it tasted like "chicken." We also bought some pineapples as the ladies have discovered that fruit on the continent is so much sweeter and tastier than fruit stateside! After our 7 hours of bumpy bus driving we arrived at the Great Zimbabwe Ruins (ZIM=Big BAB=House WE=Stone) Big house of stone.  The building for these great stone structures began in the 4th century and continued through the 1800s when I post picture you will see how amazing these structures are.  (you can youtube it for now or look up images in a google search).  We hiked all the way to the top, which was a bit treacherous, but we all made it (helping each other along the way).  Once at the top a family/group of baboons was not happy that we had made it, although the babies seemed interested in us, the Alpha male began grunting and following us very closely.  After hiking to the top....and climbing back down, we went to the great walled enclosures where there are mazes of stone walls (some of which were used to train elephants!!). It was getting dark as we were coming out so we were able to see ANOTHER brilliant African sunset. Tomorrow morning we leave early again for yet another town, where we will visit craft markets and engage in local culture...we are steadily making our way towards our Safari and then Victoria Falls and Zambia...in 1 week we will fly out from Zambia and head to South Africa for a few weeks! Hopefully soon the internet connections will approve and I will finally be able to share some pictures as I have been snapping away.