the ducor hotel

 

soooo, this is my practically obligatory-as-expat-new-to-liberia-OMFG I WENT TO THE DUCOR post. nonetheless! friends and I have been so slow at chipping away at the adventure list, that i thought it deserved commemoration. (plus, since i just turned 26, i feel like the window of time where it’s acceptable to post moody photos of abandoned buildings on my livejournal myspace blog, is quickly closing.)

so the deal with the ducor:
built in 1967, it was recognized as one of the finest hotels in west africa (you can check out some glory days photos in this slide show). when samuel doe's government fell in 1989, the ducor closed. as with the rest of the country's infrastructure, over the course of the following fourteen years of civil conflict the building was stripped impressively bare. the shell of the hotel looms over rock hill (my neighborhood) and the dwellings that have crept up the slope to the base of building. it sits at the terminus of broad street, which winds up the other side of the hill to the corrugated metal barricade. although there's a guard to prevent squatters, the people living in the area hang out there during the day; the darkened concrete slabs serve as both clothes line and playground. the guards will very conveniently look the other way, permitting a seven-flight walk up to the roof of the hotel, where you get a full 360 view of the city. it's pretty amazing. a libyan firm bought the place and was going to begin sprucing it up, until ghaddafi's government fell, which, understandably, stopped the project.

more of my photos after the jump and here (along with the national health fair).