South Tarawa, Kiribati

The South Tarawa Island Tour could not finish fast enough. There wasn’t much to see, yet our tour guide tried to fill the entire day. We could have easily finished in a few hours. We visited the parliament building, tiny fish market (3 tables of fish), tiny produce market (1 table of produce), post office, mall, and then stopped for lunch.

After lunch we visited the WW2 relics. Granted learning about the battle of South Tarawa was interesting. It was one of the most bloodiest battles in the Pacific of WW2. Approximately the same amount of military died in South Tarawa during a 76-hour battle that died in Guannelcannel, Solomon Islands during a 6-month battle.

The Americans made a huge mistake, in that they overestimated the height of the tide prior to landing, when the tide did not raise the American became target practice for the Japanese. The downside, there wasn’t many relics of significant left on the island to visit, but we visited every single one of them meticulously and methodically. I thought the day would never end.