🇿🇼 2/2025 Zimbabwe Travel

Day 137, 13.02.2025 — Victoria Falls, now in a new country! 🇿🇼

Second attempt? ✌️ The sun is shining today, and we’re ready for a new border crossing. We already know where to go and how to get there because, after all, the falls split Zambia and Zimbabwe! 🌊 We plan to return to Zambia later to head toward Malawi and Tanzania, but for now, it’s time to explore Zimbabwe. 🇿🇼

At the border, people are trying to sell billion and even trillion-dollar banknotes, a reminder of Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation in the 2000s. 😬 Unfortunately, these are just printed souvenirs, but getting real ones would be cool. 💶 You see, in the early 2000s, Zimbabwe’s economy collapsed for various reasons, and in 2008, inflation hit 89.7 sextillion percent (1⁰²³%)! 🤯 The Zimbabwean dollar lost all its value, forcing the government to print larger and larger bills. Some of the biggest banknotes in history were issued here — 100 billion Z$ (2008), 10 trillion Z$ (2008), and even 100 trillion Z$ (2009), the highest denomination ever! 🥇 This was the second-worst hyperinflation in history, after Hungary in 1946. In 2009, Zimbabwe abandoned its currency and switched to US dollars, and today, card payments are widely accepted. 💳 However, in 2024, Zimbabwe introduced “ZiG” (Zimbabwe Gold), a gold-backed currency meant to replace the unstable local money. 🤔