Sharks and Bats

I'm having the best time of my whole life. It's unreal. Completely amazing.

I arrived safely in Cairns after enjoying a free wine tasting in the Melbourne airport (yeah, I thought it was an odd place for a wine tasting, too). My hostel is really cool and the owner is a young guy who's super helpful and friendly.

Yesterday I woke up early, had a breakfast of macaroons and a capaccino at a nearby French cafe, and went shopping. I window shopped for a long time and took notes of the things I wanted to buy. I then went to an art museum and, from there, checked out a new photography gallery that had just opened that day. The lady was friendly and when I showed her a flyer for a photography show next week that I would be missing, she told me she already had some of the submissions and showed me! The theme was trying to bridge the gap between waking life and dreams. That was really cool. I then went to a really great cafe for lunch and went back off looking for the best tattoo shop in Cairns. I quickly found some of the worst shops in Cairns and went into a small shop with a rather spastic owner who talked my ear off. A note to tattoo artists, criticizing my tattoos is not a good way to get me to get tattooed in your shop. It's also really sad when an artist tells you they've been tattooing 16 years, and you can see that they've been putting consistently mediocre (at best) work on people for 16 years. Ouch. Anyway, he talked badly on the Swashdrive machine (which is the newest machine on the market and top of the line) but ultimately pointed me to the hands-down best shop in town. FINALLY! Long story short, I don't think I'll be getting tattooed here. Or maybe at all while I'm in AU. There're just too many other things to do with my money. However, shout out to Next Generation and NG2. All the artists I've shown have been impressed with what they see. After my romp around tattoo shops, I stopped in at an Irish pub, had a beer, read the paper, and went back to the mall to make purchases. I bought a Gordon Ramsay cookbook, two shirts, a singlet, and a pair of purple skinny jeans. Yeah. Purple. I'm still fairly sure it was a good idea and I'm pretty sure I can pull it off...I think. Then I went and bought tickets for a comedy show that evening that I read about in the paper. Ross Noble. Super funny British comedian. You should check him out. Then I had a gyro at a Greek place across the road, had a drink at the pub while I watched rugby, and went to the show. It was hilarious! I've never been to a comedy show before and I'm so glad I did! Also. Bats. There are TONS of HUGE bats here. Like the size of rabbits. Like they black out the sky for about an hour at dusk. Like they all hang out in two big trees and it's really unnerving to walk underneath.

So that was yesterday. That was a good day.

Today was way better.

I woke up at 7:15, got ready, got breakfast to-go at the same French cafe (did I mention it's insanely delicious and 100% hand made?), and walked a few blocks down the street to the pier where I got on my gigantic catamaran and headed off to sea.  The weather was gorgeous and the dive spots were amazing! I wore a stinger suit, which is basically a very thin jumpsuit with a hood to keep the jellyfish from stinging your skin. The British guy I was diving with compared them to a full body condom. We swam at three different sites for about an hour each. The first site was great and I followed a shark for a while and let him lead me through the coral reefs. I also saw another shark, a stingray, barracuda, sea cucumber, heaps of jellyfish, and tons of other cool looking fish that I can't even begin to describe. At the second sight, I followed a stingray for a while, saw another barracuda, followed another shark so close that I reached out to touch it before he saw me and turned away. It was so much fun being so close to sharks. Also at the second site, there were tons of giant clams and when I say giant, I mean GIANT! They also had the coolest, brightest colors that I've never seen. They looked like alien markings. Super cool. At the last site, we were hell bent on seeing sea turtles. And we saw five! The first one we saw, we followed and I swam next to it for several hundred meters, touching its fins and shell and all that. They're so cool up close and personal like that! We also saw lots of clown fish or "nemos." We swam around the coral for a long time, which was denser and bigger than any of the other locations. I got to swim through underwater tunnels made completely of coral and packed with fish. That was one of the coolest things I've done in my whole life. The last thing on our list was an octopus. We hunted for an intense amount of time and all the while I kept replaying a conversation I had with Tyler Forster just a few weeks ago of "what would you do if an octopus latched onto your face?" We never found an octopus, sadly. However, we did find a pack of barracuda. That was a little intimidating. I also swam with a school of fish that must have had at least 300 in it. Everything was so cool and so much fun and just so awe inspiring. I can't put it into words. I loved it. It was all truly amazing.

Tomorrow is either a trip into the rain forest or skydiving.

Me room 

 Me breakfast: cookies n cream, mango, caramel, white chocolate macaroons

 the photography show I got a sneak peak of 

 out the window 

 bats

 comedy show backdrop 

 rise and shine 

 Miracle Sun. Stay with me a while. 

 I'm on a boat

 dive. dive. dive.

On the boat I met a guy in his late 60s or early 70s. He had sold his house in San Fran, quit his job because he hated it, and had taken up traveling the world FULL TIME. Life is short, guys, live it the biggest and best you can. Take every chance and opportunity and make it your own.

lovelife
~Daniel