Harare

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General information of Harare.

Harare is with a population of 1.600.000 inhabitants the biggest city of the country. This, about 100 years old (young) city is modern and looks, as far as the buildings, the rush and the criminality goes, a lot like other western cities. There are skyscrapers and it is crowded in the streets. When you see a white man or woman it is a tourist or an inhabitant of the upper class. In the suburbs they build enormous houses, I don’t know is the occupant did earn their money in a fair way.

After we arrived in Harare we went with a taxi to the Bronté Hotel. With the taxi driver we spoke about the political situation of the country. He made his opinion clear: Mugabe has done a lot of good things for Zimbabwe but he is in power to long. He must go. In 2000 there are new elections and he hoped that the people would vote for another president.
	The hotel was beautiful with a large quiet garden. We went to the city centre. I’ve read on Internet and in several books about the criminality of Harare. Because of that I bought a very small APS-camera so I didn’t have to walk around with a big expensive camera: forewarned is forearmed. We didn’t feel unsafe; Harare is even unsafe as Amsterdam, London or Paris. What striked us were the security people all around. If you want to go in the security business you have to be in Harare. There are a lot of different uniforms in the street.
	We looked at a street artist, a wanderer. About 150-200 spectators and we were the only white people. And then of course when there must be paid he came to us. The artist was marvellous. In Holland he could start in a circus right away. He started with spitting fire, he walked on a rope that he stretched between 2 lampposts and finally he lifted an iron railway of 1 meter with his teeth. Unbelievable.
	After 2 days we left the city and drove southwards to Masvingo.	On the way we stopped at Epworth, a suburb of Harare. There are the famous balancing rocks. Enormous rocks and it looks like somebody piles them up.

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