Through various travel logistics, we had less time in Liberia than we’d originally hoped. Part of that was the flat tire leaving Sierra Leone. We hadn’t been able to fix it because we needed to make it to the Liberian border before it closed, so we had loped along on the flat for quite a while. Luckily, we made it!
Here’s the view while we waited for our visa stamps! It was time-consuming, but it went smoothly. While we were waiting, it ended up raining pretty hard, which was the worst weather we had all trip. Most of the time it was hot, humid, and sunny. Bordering on too hot, really, but I ended up buying a fan at a local market and that was a huge help. Still, the heat was better than rain on the rural roads, especially since we spent a lot of time outdoors when we weren’t driving.
Unfortunately, we were flying out the next afternoon, so we didn’t get much time in Monrovia. We were originally meant to have a full day, but the flight got rescheduled and cut into our time in Liberia. It was a shame – Liberia has a super interesting history. It was founded by freed African Americans who were funded and organized by the American Colonization Society. Modern day Liberia still has deep ties to the United States, from their similar flag design to aspects of their constitution, and Monrovia has an absolutely massive US Consulate downtown. Their currency, the Liberian dollar, is the same green color as USD.
Despite the short time frame, I was still able to see a lot. We started our morning at the Ducor Hotel. This used to be one of the only five-star hotels in Africa – anyone who was anyone visiting Monrovia would have stayed here. It was closed during the civil wars from 1989-1997 and 1999-2003, and now it had a sort of post-apocalyptic vibe as nature reclaims the structure. It’s much more difficult to visit now. We were not allowed to take pictures, and these were not taken by me, but they do capture what I saw during my visit.
From there, we headed to the West Point. This is considered Liberia’s largest slum. Compared to where we visited in Freetown, this area of Monrovia seemed as though it was more developed. Perhaps it was just the time of day we visited, but after we had passed through an area with stalls, we ended up in a residential area, and we saw families doing their laundry, and men sewing garments to sell, and children playing. It was nice to see a quieter rhythm of life.
From there, we walked through a bit of the center of the city. Some of the people in my group played a bit of soccer with some of the kids in the street, but we didn’t have long before we had to head out to catch our plane.
It was a quick visit. I wish we had gotten a bit more time in Liberia, but traveling is full of trade-offs, and considering I work full time, I didn’t exactly have more time to devote to this particular trip. As it is, I had to dip into next year’s allocation of PTO to make this happen. Despite the rush, though, I did feel like I got a sense of Monrovia.
The flight first stopped in Conakry and then continued on to Abijdan, so it took up most of the afternoon. That first flight over to Guinea was a bit trippy, since it took an hour and a half of flying to basically undo the entire journey over 3 or 4 days. Still, it was nice to have a break from the long driving days and we were off to our next country: Côte d’Ivoire!