Hey all I haven’t written anything on my blog in a while but here’s a little synopsis of an awesome trip I went on in to Malawi in August. Malawi is a small country east of Zambia and a popular vacation spot for Peace a Corps Zambia volunteers. One of the highlights of the country for tourists is Lake Malawi, one of the Great Lakes of Africa. The Great Lakes of Africa are part of the great Rift Valley caused by the African techtonic plate slowly splitting in two.
Lake Malawi is world famous not only for its beautiful beaches but also because it has the greatest diversity of cichlid fish in the world. Even just snorkeling you’re able to see fish of many different colors.
The first spot that my friends and I stopped at was mushroom farm, a clifftop lodge near Livingstonia. Mushroom Farm is owned by an American man named Cameron who made us feel very welcome. Mushroom Farm has beautiful scenic clifftop views of the lake and surrounding villages. In addition mushroom farm had some of the best food I’ve had since my arrival on the African continent. Everything is grown in their own garden and they even make their own coffee. I would highly reccomended mushroom farm to anyone who finds themselves in Malawi, just be prepared to take a 10 mile canter ride up a narrow cliff side road.
The next spot that my friends and I went to was likoma island. A Malawian enclave in Mozambiquean territory we technically had to go through mozambiquean waters to get there. The island was super beautiful but there was only one drawback. We had to take a small boat with about 400 people for about 8 hours each way to get there.
Our last destination was Nkhata Bay, a little lakeside town. Nkhata Bay definitely had a carribean feel, reggae music was bumping from every shop that you passed. We stayed at mayoka lodge, which was really cool and right by the water. During our travels we saw many baboons and vervet monkeys. At mayoka you had to make sure your door was closed or Monkeys would come in looking for food.
After all this fun it was time to travel back to zambia and get back to work in the village. Malawi stands as one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to and I’d reccomend it to anyone who wants a really nice vacation for a cheap price :)