Christmas Eve in Cairns - Monday, December 24

We are met at the airport by one of the staff from the dive boat.  She lets us know that Qantas is flying our luggage to Cairns, and they will deliver it to our hotel around 6:00 this evening.  She drives us to our hotel and along the way lets us know that she's arranged for us to dive on the day boat tomorrow and Wednesday.  On Thursday we'll take a small charter plane out to Lizard Island on Thursday to meet up with the live aboard.  We treat ourselves to a lovely hotel for the next three days.  It's so hot and humid here!  The sun is shining and it's about 90!  What a change from Colorado!  David buys a pair of shorts and we hit the streets to check out Cairns.  Only about 125,000 people live here.  It's quite hilly and very tropical.  The town is surrounded by rainforest.  After lunch at an outdoor cafe we head down to the marina and check out the beautiful boats in their slips.  Back at the hotel, the valet brings our luggage to our room earlier than expected.  It's the best Christmas present this year!  We change into our running clothes and run along the esplanade as the sun is setting.  We are dripping wet by the time we get back.  During dinner it begins to rain so hard that they have to drop the awnings to keep customers from getting soaked.  Neither one of us can remember the last time we saw it rain that hard.  It cools things off for a short time, but the humidity just gets worse.