Zambia is in the south central part of Africa and is landlocked (has no seaport). It is surrounded by 8 countries: Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi, and Botswana. Zambia became independent from British rule (after 70 years) on October 24, 1964, at which point they changed their name from Northern Rhodesia. Zambia means “land of many rivers.” There are 16 million people in Zambia, made up of 7 tribes, with 72 different spoken languages, the official language of which is English, which is taught in schools. Their main industries are mining copper, agriculture (depending on the season), maize (which is a cash crop), and tourism. Livingstone (which is where we stayed and is about an hour from the port where we disembarked), is the heritage city because of Victoria Falls and the buildings in the town. Lusaka is the capitol city, which was 480km (298mi) or 5 hours away by car from Livingstone. After Zambia gained independence, they helped Malawi (1975) and Zimbabwe (1980) gain independence, after which South Africa became independent. Livingstone, which has a population of 200,000 people (and is growing due to tourism), was established in 1905, and was named after David Livingstone, who was one of the first Europeans to set foot on Zambia. He named the Falls after Queen Victoria, who never saw the Falls.
David Livingstone 
Christianity is the dominant religion in Zambia, but there are no “communities” (meaning no separation of blacks and whites). Their motto is “One Zambia, One nation,” meaning that they are one people, regardless of color or race.
Trucks waiting at the Zambia border to cross to Botswana 
Truck pontoon on the Zambezi River
When we arrived at the border, there was a long line of trucks on both sides of the border, patiently waiting for their turn to cross the River to the other side. Trucks can wait up to 2 weeks, depending on how many pontoons are available to transport them across the river. There is a bridge being built, but it will not be ready until 2023. There have been delays because the government is not contributing the money that they were supposed to, and the workers have been on strike. Driving on the roads in many of the areas we traveled to was a chore, at times, for our driver, as there were huge “potholes” and bumps, such that we often heard from our drivers that we were receiving an “African massage.” Lol!
Victoria Falls National Park expands into Livingstone, Zambia, and it is the only national park in Zambia where you can find the white rhinoceros. The Zambian side of the Falls has 1200m of the falls (whereas there are 500m on the Zimbabwe side). The Falls is 1.7km (just over 1 mile) wide, and 900 million liters per second of water fall in the high season. The Falls are within Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia, which is 66sqkm (25sqmi), making it one of the smallest parks. They have Baobab (“bow-bahb”) trees, which have the longest lifespan, at 150 years. Baobab trees carry a lot of water, and their fruit is used for medicinal purposes, including bathing premature babies in a mixture that uses the fruit to help them develop. The park is also home to the white rhino (whose tusks are used to grind into tea in Korea, and made into daggers in Muslim countries and given to 12 year olds as a right of passage); water bucks, buffalo (which live up to 23 years), elephants, and blue wildebeest (live up to 21 years). Impalas live 17-18 years, and Chokma baboons live up to 20 years. We finally saw the third of our Big Five, the white rhino, on a land game drive in Zambia. They have poor eyesight, but have a good ability to jump and run (up to 35-45km/hr). We were pleased with being able to see not only the white rhinoceros, but also a herd of elephants cross the Zambezi River from Zimbabwe to Zambia!
(no, they aren’t actually white in color)
After our very rewarding visit to Zambia, we were off to Eswatini…