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HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
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MAY 2012
87
to a hand-painted sign that states the liquor
limit: one liter of spirits per arriving visitor. I’m
carrying two. He sees both bo les inmy hand
luggage. When I tell him I plan to share, he
smiles. “No problem, no problem.” Only then
do I notice he’s barefoot.
The airport is a stifling clapboard and
cinder block affairwitha tin roof. Just outside,
Ioran Kaiteie, our local guide, is waiting for
us. He’s been leading anglers into Kiritimati’s
lagoon and offshore for 15 years, but until now
he’d never heard of kayak fishing. We pile into
the back of an open-air flatbed truck with
bench seats for the 45-minute drive to the
Dive & Fishing Adventure Lodge, our modest
accommodations (more clapboard and cinder
block) for the next week.
Resourcefulness is survival on Kiritimati.
Passing through sleepy se lements, I notice
a church bell made from discarded scuba
tanks. Scrap metal is lashed together with
twine to fashion chicken coops and pigpens.
There’s a rusted refrigerator lying in repose as
amakeshi cupboard. In one village, a 40-foot
cargo container has been repurposed as a
police station, with a door
and two windows