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Photos - Kiritimati Part II, December 2005

...click on the small photos for larger versions...

Kiritimati (Christmas) Island lies one hundred miles north of the Equator. Freya celebrated Christmas 2005 here.
Houses on Dry Land Two types of house-building materials on Kiritimati are tin and pandanus/coconut. You can see how dry the land is.
One Night Stand From our anchorage, the view west consisted of thousands of miles of uninterrupted Pacific Ocean.
Freya Dressed Freya and Barb are all dressed for Christmas!
Christmas Dinner Christmas Dinner was a joyous gustatory feast! We've almost forgotten that each wedge of tomato cost $1...
Christmas Dinner Traditional Danish Risengrød for dessert. Mmmmmm. No, the umbrellas in the drinks didn't keep them dry.
Paddycake Two days after Christmas we attended a singing/dance competition at one of the maneabas. As a warmup, we played paddycake with the younger kids.
Judges Barb & I were shanghaied into sitting on the judges' panel. It gave us great front-row seats, but meant that we had to sit through the entire 4 hour affair.
Grass Skirts Each of the three villages performed five dances. Behind this line of dancers, the rest of the team drums and sings enthusiastically.
Video tape skirts The dancers from the village of Banana wore skirts made from strips of old video tape. Interestingly, it was very rare for any of the performers to break out of their very serious demeanor while dancing.
Grass Skirts Before each team performed, spectators would scurry up and spray them about the underarms with perfume and dust their feet with talcum powder.
Tuna Boat One of about six tuna boats that stopped at Kiritimati, unloading its catch onto a cargo ship to take to S. America for canning. Note the helicopter on deck for spotting fish.
Nei Momi Contrast the flash tuna boat with this local ship, Nei Momi. This is Kiribati's inter-island people and cargo ferry, covering 1800 miles between Tarawa and other western islands, and the eastern Line Islands.
Waiting for Nei-Momi The day before Nei-Momi was to leave, passengers and their families waited for the boarding signal.
IV Pole The fellow sitting on the flatbed is holding an IV bag for the woman in the striped headdress. She may have been headed for the hospital in Tarawa, at least a 10 day journey.
Freya from Pier Freya seen from the pier. We were happy to have her as transportation, after seeing the alternative.
Petrol Pump We needed to top up our diesel tank before leaving - using a hand-cranked pump that would be immune to power failures.
Frigates As we closed on Tabuaeran we were escorted by dozens of Frigate Birds.
Boobie The ever-curious Boobie Birds also visited. The non-forked tail is the easiest way to distinguish them from the larger Frigate Birds.
Dolphin A pod of at least 30 dolphins played joyously around Freya for 20 minutes. Tabuaeran is just visible on the horizon to the right.


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1000 DeCosta Pl.
Victoria, BC
Canada  V9A 6Y3
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This page last updated 7 Jun 2020