Tuesday in Cairns

We got in late and finally got to sleep around 1:30am. I was up by 6am, and Rebecca wasn't far behind. After breakfast downstairs, we took a little walk along the Esplanade enjoying the morning. The view from our room is really nice. (Remember to click on each photo for a larger view, then use your "back" button to come back here.)

After the walk, I had to get back to the room in order to attend my Monday night class. (Time zones can be so very strange.) Surprisingly, I had no trouble at all with the connection and enjoyed another interesting class meeting. I really have interesting class mates, but I guess that's another story.

After class, we decided to walk about town. We ate at an open air restaurant, the standard in this town, then started toward the mall in the center of town, which is all the rage in the area. On the way, we stopped to look at the trees surrounding the city library. They are the same kind we found in Cuba (can't remember their name) and we thought they were quite beautiful, so we took several pictures of ourselves standing under them.

We noticed some signs under the trees telling how they are the breeding place for an animal called a "flying fox". "Interesting," we thought, "wonder if we can see any of these creatures." It was about this time that we noticed we were standing in a very large area of berry poo (some of it still falling). We were very excited when we spotted our first fox, but within about 10 minutes of our oohing and aahing, the situation had really changed. The trees are FULL of these creatures, hanging upside down (and pooing!), but unlike the bats in our neck of the woods, we noticed these guys have an extremely large wing span. As I said, 10 minutes into the adventure and we found ourselves hurrying away from these scary hordes! It was really crazy!

Note: A google search reveal that these are "the largest bats in the world", do not possess the typical bat hearing (echolocation), and have a wingspan of up to 6 feet. Yikes!

While the city is nice, the prices are a little on the high side, and once you move away from the Esplanade, it really does look just like a number of other cities in the world. All the really exciting things are a bit outside of the city. So, when I get up in the morning and head to PNG for business, Rebecca will be the one trying out all those "exciting things". And me? Well, I'm looking forward to more adventure, of course, but am really trying to work out how to talk Leo into coming back here for a real vacation someday soon!