A bit of Australia

Continuing with the backlog of trips, Carlos and I were in Cairns, Australia from 17-26 July. We were there mostly to attend the annual ATBC (Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation) meeting and a post-conference field workshop in the Daintree Rainforest. I haven't downloaded and organized all of my photos from the trip yet, but I thought I could post a few pictures here with short descriptions so you can get an impression of our trip. I really want to go back to Australia one of these days--it was an amazing place (though extremely expensive!) with so much to see and do.

Australian Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami) I ran into on the James Cook University Campus:

Some of the picturesque buildings on the James Cook U campus:

A massive amount of wallabies getting ready to sleep for the evening:

More wallabies grazing, looking at us, and getting ready for bed:

The ATBC 2014 Council (a really great group of people):

I tried it, but really did not like Vegemite:

Giant fig tree in the city (Cairns) that served as a flying fox nursery--they were so cool and very, very squeaky:

Close-up of some of the hanging flying-foxes--so cool!:

Tasty honeycomb latte at breakfast one morning:

Equally-delicious ham and egg sandwich for breakfast:

ATBC-SECSCI (Student and Early Career SCIentist) Chapter meeting that I organized during the conference:

My drink of choice in Australia--ginger beer (not alcoholic):

Me, my mentor Pierre-Michel Forget, and SCRAT (scatter-hoarding rat):

Me eating some very tasty ramen (we went back for lunch twice!):

Wonderfully-cloudy view from one of the balconies in our hotel/apartment:

 

This was a really wonderful and productive trip! ATBC was one of the best I've ever been to (next year it's in Honolulu, HI) and visiting the Australian Tropics was a chance of a lifetime--we'll be back!