Into the Bayou...

Ever since watching Deliverence, I've always wanted to go to the Louisiana Bayou. Not that I particularly want to relive what the guys in that film went through, mind you... ;) So, a visit there was definitely mandatory.

We booked a guided trip that included transport from New Orleans, the pick up was organized at one of the hotels in the French Quarters. Being timely individuals, we arrived on time for the pick-up, at 10AM. This, however, did not seem to please our somewhat grumpy Cajun chauffeur, one Eugene Lefebvre (I think that was his name), who was rather dissatisfied with the fact that we weren't there at 9:50, when he picked up the other guests.

The drive to the bayou took us through New Orleans' suburbs, through some of the areas that had really badly hit by Katrina hurricane, the events were recounted in grimy detail by dear Eugene (after he not to kindly told everybody to shut up so he could tell his story). The hurricane was for sure a great tragedy, and it was interesting to hear about it, but Eugene could've wallowed a bit less in the grimy details about how many people died at each place.

The boat trip was really cool. Our guide was a much more cheerful fellow than Eugene, thankfully (and had a much more understandable accent, too!), as he took us through the evocative river landscape. The bayou was pretty much exactly as I'd expected it, the green-greyish water of the river lined up with impressive trees, with Spanish moss hanging from them - makes for a very eerie landscape. The Cajuns still live on the river, and judging from the somewhat ramshackle houses, life isn't very easy in this part of the world. It all made for an almost Deliverance-like atmosphere.

And what about the wildlife ? Unfortunately, we didn't see any alligators - apparently the weather was too cold for them. But plenty of other wildlife. There were plenty of birds of varying species (don't expect me to tell you which ones!), plenty of sea snakes (our guide had the almost supernatural ability to spot them on the tree branches, even with the boat going at full speed).

The highlight of the trip was probably a bunch of wild pigs we ran into on one of the tributaries. They do seem to be a bit used to tourists though, as they didn't seem to be particularly scared - not sure about how ecologically sound it is to feed them marshmallows either. But, the pigs seem to like them!

All in all, a very interesting experience indeed. It does seem that the Cajun culture is still well and alive, let's hope they can keep it that way. I suppose they need money from urban tourists like us for that to be possible!