Acrophobia is described as an uncontrollable, irrational, and often crippling fear of heights. I'm not sure if this concept has an opposite -- acrophilia, maybe? Love of heights? -- but that's how I'd describe anyone brave (crazy?) enough to go for a dip at the Devil's Pool.

The Devil's Pool is a natural swimming hole surrounded by just-below-the-surface rocks at the top of Africa's Victoria Falls, right at the edge of the 108-meter falls on the Zambezi River. When I say right at the edge, I don't mean near the edge, or sort of close to the falls, or in the grass next to the falls -- I mean it is on the edge of the falls.

Just looking at pictures of the tourists who've gone there makes me a bit light headed. I know myself well enough to know that I could never, ever get in that water -- but the photos from those braver than I are absolutely stunning. No, these aren't photoshopped. It's allegedly very safe, but I can't help but think that those who scoot out over the edge for a once-in-a-lifetime photograph are really pushing their luck.

Are you brave enough to dive in?

Would you give up Christmas, New Year's, and three weeks of your winter vacation to travel to a country wracked by every malady you can think of--economic collapse, political turmoil, widespread starvation, etc?

Yep, I'm talking about Zimbabwe, which has paradoxically been skyrocketing towards the top of my must-visit list. What'll be particularly jarring is that I'm flying in from a 12-hr layover in Madrid and arrival in Johannesburg. I just might not want to leave either places.

Anyways, our resident Lonely Planet writer, Matt Firestone, tells me that there's no travel guides on Zimbabwe, or at least one that has been updated in the last 7-8 years. So add that to the above list of why this whole trip will be quite an adventure. Oh, and we're planning (as of now, when we're still giddy by the novelty of the idea and not say, shaking in fear) to drive in by car or motorcycle!

Tired of carrying around stacks of $50-million-dollar bills to pay for their groceries, Zimbabweans are turning to gasoline vouchers as substitutes for their hyperinflating currency.

Because the government of Zimbabwe will not allow transactions to take place in US dollars, people and businesses are finding other things of value to trade for goods and services. Gasoline vouchers, scarce food, and old coins, which have recently been revalued, are all being traded instead of the Zimbabwean dollar, which now has an inflation rate of about 50 million percent.

To illustrate how bad the inflation is, restaurant owners have been tacking on an extra 80% to the bill of customers who pay by check. That's the amount needed to compensate for the inflation that will take before the check clears-- about five days.

More here.

[HT: Chris Blattman's Blog]

Remember my award-winning post from way back in January about Zimbabwe's introduction of a $10 million dollar bill? (Nod "yes" and let's move on.)

Anyway, that was two-and-a-half months ago, and the country's 100,000% inflation rate has already made it necessary for another impressive-sounding-but-actually-very-sad denomination of currency: the $50 million dollar bill. It's worth about US$1 on the black market, enough for three loaves of bread.

A quote from Gideon Gono, the governor of the central bank of Zimbabwe, is worth repeating here: "As monetary authorities, we once again assure the nation that we are in full control of the currency situation."

With all due respect to Mr. Gono, I have as much control over Zimbabwe's currency situation as he does.

How much longer before the numbers on the bills are written in scientific notation?

More here.

This weekend, Zimbabwe is slated to hold democratic elections to elect the new leader of the country. The defending candidate of 28 years, Robert Mugabe, is facing some fierce opposition, but many are worried about the validity and fairness of the election. Despite the appearance of a free Democracy, you see, Zimbabwe is wrangling some serious problems. We've distilled the issues and events of recent Zim at Gadling for you here:

Robert Mugabe was born in Southern Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe) in 1924 and has over the years climbed through the political ranks and eventually into power in 1980. He has ruled ever since, though his tenure has been marred with infighting, violence and ethnic genocide.

As the Mugabe regime has evolved, more and more Western states have raised alarm in the country, citing further behavior reticent of an authoritarian regime. Accusations include rampant ballot rigging, corruption and the above mentioned rape and genocide of over 20,000 ethnic Zimbabweans. In 2003, the Bush administration levied economic sanctions against many members of the governmental regime, forbidding Americans to trade with or visit the country.

Mugabe's controversial land reform program, enacted earlier this decade, was a plan to redistribute land from wealthy, white farm owners to smaller, indigenous farmers. Under these laws, Zimbabweans were allowed to settle onto larger corporate farms with no advance warning or permission -- it was now their right. Unfortunately, many of these farmers didn't have the skills or equipment to run these farms, so huge swaths of land quickly went to waste. As a result, the former agrarian economy that was once an exporter to much of South Africa became an importer.

Poor economic management of said crisis and other Zimbabwean events by the current government have resulted in serious economic instability. Inflation has skyrocketed to the current open market exchange rate of 1US dollar to 30,000 Zim dollars. Unofficially, however, inflation is still surging, and a black market economy is now commonplace among citizens, with an exchange rate as high as 1USD to 550,000ZD.

With "democratic" elections now underway, many fear that Mugabe will be unwilling to let go of the power theat he has now held for almost thirty years. Ballot rigging is a serious concern, combined with the fact that no Western sources are on hand to monitor the process.

At the time of writing, voting stations have been closed for over 36 hours with no word on official results from the nation. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has declared an unofficial victory with less than half of the votes counted and the Mugabe strongholds yet to report, so few are willing to make a call yet.

What Zimbabwe really needs though is a straight shooting, honest government ready to turn the economy around, stifle inflation and return the country to the normal, commodity producing state that it once was. Regardless of whether the MDC, Mugabe or another opposition party takes control at this point, Zimbabwe will not recover without this.

When I used to play Sim City, one of my favorite computer games back in the day, I would always think: This is fun, but when will they come out with a Zimbabwe edition? Finally, it seems, my prayers have been answered.

Introducing Simbabwe. Hailed as the "leading Zimbabwe simulation for Mac OS X"-- and I'm sure there's some fierce competition in that category-- the game tries to simulate all the great things about Zimbabwe that you and I love so much: economic disasters, humanitarian crises, and of course, megalomaniacal dictators.

From the website: "Welcome to Simbabwe, where the property is already owned and the houses built and you compete to burn and dispossess them. Bounce around the map plundering farms, denying grain silos to opposition supporters and robbing the community chest."

Sounds like fun, no?

No word on whether the game, like the real Zimbabwe, features $10 million bills.

The video above shows a couple of guys having a blast, inches away from certain death. They're at Devil's Pool, a little known natural rock inlet at the very top of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

Here's what Virgin Media had to say about the experience:

Life on the edge swim; ... a small jump (what felt like the leap of death) lands you in a small rock pool at the edge of the Falls. As you stand this close to such raw, natural beauty, you can barely hear yourself screaming above the sound of the water rushing down while adrenalin pumps through your body turning it into a shaking, excitable mess. You realize why the not-eating-before-swimming rule has always stuck.

As the US economy inches ever closer to a recession, it might provide a little perspective to look at what a real economic crisis looks like. Plagued by hyperinflation of over 50,000% a year, Zimbabwe's central bank recently decided to issue $10 million notes-- believed to be the highest denomination of currency in the world today. The bill, worth less than US$4, is barely enough to purchase a hamburger. One writer illustrates the rampant inflation:

"The bill is exactly the same color, layout and design as a $20 bill I've been carrying in my wallet since my trip to Zimbabwe 15 months ago... When I wrote about that $20, it was worth about $0.025 USD - a silly amount of money to represent with a bill, but still a functional piece of currency. At the moment, that bill is worth $0.00000005 cents, or 5 hundred-millionths of a cent."

Residents of Zimbabwe have been forced to use brick-shaped stacks of worthless bills to purchase even everyday items, like groceries. This is what it took to buy a beer just a month ago-- today the situation is still worse. The introduction of the $10 million bill is a response to this, but given the astronomical rate of inflation, the bill will only hold its value for a few weeks before it too becomes worthless

Despite the dismal economic situation, the central bank's much-maligned governor, Gideon Gono, offers this risible bit of encouragement: "As monetary authorities, we once again assure the nation that we are in full control of the currency situation."

Zimbabwe wasn't where I was planning to pull the word from today, but I stumbled upon one and noticed I've never selected from this part of Africa ever before. All this is a shame too as the year is almost over and this is the first time Zimbabwe gets a mention. I'm sure I've missed several other uncommon languages, but that doesn't make it excusable. Tonight we embrace the Shona language.

Toady's word is a Shona word used in Zimbabwe:

harare - the one who does not sleep

Harare is the capital city of Zimbabwe and Shona also known as ChiShona is the mother tongue of Zimbabwe. Spoken in Mozambique, Zambia, and Botswana as well, there are approximately 7,000,000 speakers. Travelers heading to Zimbabwe needn't worry too much about knowing this particular language. With English holding the official status anyone should be able to get around comfortably or close to. If you wish to continue online start with this Shona English dictionary and then proceed to this Shona Language site. Wikipedia, like always, has good background detail on the history and people that speak the lang in Zimbabwe and surrounding countries.

Although today isn't my day for our Photo of the Day feature, I caught sight of this sign picture and had to pass it on. If you ever felt intimidated in the market place or too shy to bargain in Africa; this sign clears the fog. They bargain in Africa. Taken in South Africa by Demonterious, there are many other sign photos, people shots and miscellaneous Africa shots. In his blog he describes his adventures being on tour with the band, AFAR for the first time in strange lands. It's by no means a travel blog, but it is worth a read for the small hidden nuggets of travel information on South Africa. The band looks to be headed towards Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe as well which means if you're really interested in touring with them you should probably go ahead and bookmark the blog now. Also, check out the blog of my close pal, Richard Johnson, who plays keyboard for the band and has some additional photos floating around as well.