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Tropical Rain Forest

We took a tour through the tropical rain forests of Australia found in far north Queensland today. It was a tour in a 4WD vehicle and it was nice to actually be chaffered around a bit given all the walking and other physically straining stuff we've been doing for the last week or so (it's pretty ridiculous how sore I was today from diving yesterday). Queenslanders are thought to be, by the rest of the country that is, a pretty weird bunch. "Mad as a bag of snakes," I read. This guy Nigel, our tour guide, didn't do anything to shake that stereotype. Strange fellow. We were driving along a highway between two sites and we passed a dead dingo on the side of the road. He was like, "ooh! We just passed a dingo. Let's go back and have a look." Then he pulls up next to the dingo lying there on the side of the road and starts pointing out the characteristics of a dingo. If that weren't bad enough, the idiots from Texas on the tour with us went over to the window of the truck and started snapping photos. Of roadkill. One of them asked Nigel a question that he couldn't answer without "getting a closer look," and I was pretty convinced he was going to get out of the truck and start pointing out features up close. You know, have a poke. I'm sure the Texans would have loved it but fortunately for Queenslanders in general, he stopped short of doing so. They were a good fit for each other though, the Texans and Nigel.

Anyway, the rain forest is huge. It encompasses a ridiculous swath of land. I forget the exact number, but many hundreds of hectares.

This was a pretty sweet waterfall in the middle of it all.

Our waiter at dinner tonight. When we were first seated and he came over to hand us our menus, he looked at me like he knew me and did a double take. I didn't notice this, but my sister did. When he came back with our water he told me he was sure I was Vin Diesel at first. No lie. This fuckin guy says this to me with a straight face. hahaha... it was hysterical. Then we're talking later on and we're talking about sports. American sports, nonetheless, which is very odd here. Nobody I've spoken to follows baseball or basketball or anything like this, so it was refreshing to have a conversation about baseball again. He asked where we were from and we said New York and he asked, "Mets or Yankees?" Of course, my response was, "Cubs!" And then he starts reminiscing about Steve Bartman. Thanks. Guy. Dammit Steve Bartman. Other than maybe in the Western Australia desert, you can't get much further and remote from Chicago as Cairns, Queensland, Australia and I still have to hear about Steve Bartman. Three years later. Great.