This morning we fly to Tarawa, capital of Kiribati — the 4th least visited country on earth and one of the most geographically improbable. Its 33 atolls amount to just 800 square kilometres of land scattered across 3.5 million square kilometres of ocean, making it the only nation falling into all four hemispheres. It is also among the most threatened — rising seas may render much of it uninhabitable within this century, and the government has already purchased land in Fiji as a contingency. We arrive at a place that is both ancient and urgently present.
Our early arrival gives us a full day. We begin with an orientation drive through South Tarawa — from Bouta down to Betio — the closest thing Kiribati has to a city tour. Our guide threads through a landscape of Japanese-funded hospitals, World Bank roads, and a string of brightly painted Catholic churches. At the Parliament buildings, constructed on reclaimed land and funded by fishing licence revenues, we learn that 42 elected members govern a nation of 100,000 people spread across the Pacific. The President's house, modest to the point of humility, says something worth noting.
Betio carries the Pacific War with particular intensity. In November 1943, one of the bloodiest 76-hour battles in Marine Corps history was fought on these beaches. Japanese guns still point seaward from concrete emplacements, and we walk Red Beach and Green Beach as our guide recounts what happened here. Bunkers, memorials, and the old Japanese Command Centre fill in the picture. On occasion visitors have encountered researchers from History Flight, quietly working to identify marines buried in common trench graves on these shores — the kind of unscripted encounter this tour occasionally delivers.
This afternoon we cross to North Tarawa, where the islets feel genuinely untouched and the arrival of outsiders is still something of an event. Children are curious and unguarded; nothing is for sale. We walk through village life as it actually is — women weaving pandanus mats, toddy being cut, thatched roofing being prepared — before visiting a clam farm to learn about these vivid reef-dwelling creatures. Slow, observational travel at its best.
We return in time for dinner, followed by a performance of traditional I-Kiribati dance.
Overnight in Tarawa.
Included Meal(s): Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
