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Alejandra Daniel

The past week has been a whirlwind of a trip to Australia. After over 24 hours of travel time, I landed in Cairns and met the other graduate students that are in the program. We then traveled two more very long hours to Crocodylus in the Daintree Rainforest. Amazingly, after only a couple of hours of being together, it felt like all of us in the program had known each other for years. During our stay at Crocodylus, we hiked through the rainforest twice in two days; although we were seeing two parts of the same rainforest, the lenses through which we were taken were very different. The first hike (titled a Dreamtime Walk) took place at the Mossman Gorge Cultural Center and was led by a member of the Aboriginal tribe Kuku Yalanji named Ben. The hike began with us experiencing a traditional smoking ceremony where we walked through the smoke of a fire to ward off bad spirits and to allow our spirits to become one with the rainforest - an experience that set the tone for the rest of the hike. This hike was focused on the spirituality of the rainforest, demonstrating traditional uses of the rainforest and allowing us to observe sacred sites of the Indigenous people. What was amazing to me about this hike was learning about how other cultures may look at the rainforest in a way that is completely different from how you may see it. The second hike took place at the Cooper Creek Nature Reserve, the oldest and most undisturbed part of the rainforest. While our first tour focused on the spiritual part of the rainforest, our second guide focused on the more scientific side of the rainforest while showing us some of the most beautiful sights we have ever seen. My personal highlight from this walk was seeing the incredibly beautiful Fan Palms that were most prevalent in the undisturbed parts of the rainforest. My personal lowlight was finding a leech on my shoe. The following day resulted in one of the top 5 most amazing moments of my life. We journeyed to Lizard Island in a very small plane that held 7 people. Our pilot glided very close to the water, making large sweeps to the left and right so that we could see the beautiful reefs. After arriving at Lizard Island, I quickly realized that this was probably one of the most beautiful places that I had ever seen. Today, I got to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. Although the people who have seen it previously mentioned that it was devastating how unhealthy the reef looked, I was still amazed at how beautiful it was. My biggest takeaways from this trip so far have been 1) that the people who are on this trip with me are all amazing and 2) that I am incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to come on an amazing trip like this one.

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