A Wildlife Sanctuary and a Beach Resort in Liberia

While I didn’t go to Liberia to see the tourist attractions, Isaac scheduled Saturday as a day of recreation. I really had no thoughts about what we would do other than I wanted to see a beach. Since Glenn and Wendy Lorenz were also there, Glenn had a thought. Coming from the airport he said he had seen a sign about a chimpanzee place. With that as a goal we headed out from our hotel.

Since Isaac and his son were coming along, one car was too small for all of us so we now had another driver. He came in his own taxi. Wendy and I ended up in our regular car while Glenn and Isaac were in the other car. The drive out was actually pretty long. We passed the road we usually turned off to go to the church and kept going. Finally we turned off the main highway. We ended up at the Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary. I’m not sure this was the place that Glenn had in mind, but since we were there, we decided to check it out.

The Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary’s purpose is to save native animals. They are trying to save animals who have been captured or have been hunted. If at all possible, their goal is to return the animals back into their native habitat. While the animals are kept in cages, this is not a zoo. However, they do keep and care for some animals they cannot return to the wild for whatever reason.

We paid a small fee to visit the wildlife sanctuary. We then had a guide who took us around and explained about the animals. She was a very nice young woman but somewhat difficult to understand. Sometimes Isaac would need to clarify what she said which didn’t seem to bother her.

The first animals we encountered were a couple of monkeys. They were in a cage in the front as they were apparently new additions to the sanctuary. As such the sanctuary quarantines them from the other animals for a period of time to make sure they are healthy and not bringing any diseases into the sanctuary. They were pretty lively.

Next we saw some lonely animals, meaning there was only one. One was an alligator who lay motionless in its space. It was smaller than others I had seen. Nearby was a cage with a lone antelope. It had room to move around, but seemed rather lonely.

Then we came to more monkeys. Monkeys seemed to the the main animals here, but there are a number of different kinds of monkeys. I certainly could not keep straight the names of all the different kinds of monkeys, but I could see the different colors, head shapes, and actions. Each cage held a specific breed of monkeys so they did not intermix.

Some of the monkeys were curious and watched us as we went by. They would hang on to the chain link fences. However not all of them were friendly. Some of them would scream at us and bar their teeth. I was glad they were behind a fence as they acted like they wanted to attack us.

Besides the monkeys inside the cages, there were also some local monkeys hanging around outside the cages. I’m not sure if they were hoping for food or just wanted to visit with the monkeys inside.

In one area tarps blocked off a section of the sanctuary. Our guide told us we couldn’t go into that area as it was the location of some animals they were preparing to release into the wild. They didn’t want them to be around humans much so they didn’t see us, and we didn’t see them.

We did see an owl in one of the cages. I don’t think of an owl as a tropical animal, but it was there staring at us with its big eyes.

The wildlife sanctuary had a couple of unusual animals. One of them we saw just a little bit of. Its nose and long claws were sticking out from its hiding place. The animal is a kusimanse and is related to the mongoose. It is found throughout the West Africa area.

The other unique animal is the pangolin. The wildlife sanctuary is particularly concerned about this unusual mammal. According to their website, they are the most illegally trafficked mammal. Hunters kill them for their meat and their scales. Unfortunately we did not see any of them. Being nocturnal animals, the two they had slept in a dark room. Visitors could not enter the room and disturb them. All we saw was an information pole with photos.

As we left the wildlife sanctuary, we passed by the kitchen where a worker was preparing food for the animals. We could see the shelves of fruits and plants they were using.

On the other side of the entrance to the Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary was the Libassa Ecolodge Resort. It was next to the ocean, and we wanted to go onto the beach. Unfortunately they charged an admission fee, and we didn’t think it was worth it to pay just to go look at the beach.

However, the guys who were with us said going to the beach was not a problem. The Lodge had a wall all the way around it. The guys took us around the wall and lead us down to the beach. There was nothing keeping us from being on the beach.

The sand here was a brownish color, and on this day the wind was blowing so the waves were coming in pretty high. Behind the resort itself they had built up a retaining wall of sorts with a lot of rocks so there was no actual beach there, but we could see the waves crashing into the wall. However, there were beaches on both sides of the resort walls.

We walked along the back wall of the resort and came to an area which looked like a clubhouse. There was an entrance to the resort here. Glenn talked to someone there and found out we could eat in the clubhouse without paying the daily entrance fee. The next thing we knew we were led to a table inside the clubhouse. From there we had a view of the resort which looked pretty nice. They had a nice pool and lazy river which would be great on a hot day.

One of the interesting aspects of the clubhouse was a series of orange masks around the walls. There are a number of recognized tribal groups in Liberia, and each one is represented by one of the masks. Isaac was able to point out the mask representing his tribe to us.

It was nice to have a meal somewhere other than our hotel. It made for an enjoyable end to our outing. After we ate, we went out through the front. We passed by some huts which apparently one can rent and stay here at the resort.

It was time to go back to our hotel. It had been a good and educational day. While my stay in Liberia had been brief, I was glad that I had the chance to visit this wonderful country in West Africa. The people I had interacted with had been warm and friendly. It was an honor to visit there.

Be sure to check out the post next week as Andrea, my daughter, begins a short series on her trip to Africa this past summer. She went for the animals. I’m sure you will enjoy reading about her experiences.