Day 2–New Orleans (Swamp and Plantation Tours)

The swamp and plantation tours had been recommended by my friends multiple times, so we took our combination tour with the Cajun Pride. Thumbs up for all our seasoned guides. I should definitely have asked them their secrets in explain things so clearly and concisely. It was raining on and off, so sorry for the exposure of pictures. 

Interestingly, there are still people living by the swamp or staying in the cabins during the hunting season. It is said except no electricity, no tap water, living in the swamp is actually quit self-sustained. There are a lot kinds of ingredients, herbs and meat sources, you can get in the swamp to make gumbo to easily feed six people. Our tour guide was recommending the nutria, which is high protein, low fat, and of course, alligator. He also has an one-year old gator for all of us to hold and touch. Poor thing, his mouth has to be wrapped in tape. One thing worth to mention is the story of Julia Brown, who practiced voodoo, “took the town with me”(her) after a major hurricane and how the story inspired the ghost hunting. Louisiana does have a long history of voodoo tradition. Overall it was an very interesting tour, but I just hoped we had seen more animals other than gators and dragonflies. It is so hot and humid here, even cats will not move, no matter how many stupid humans are around.

The plantation we went to was the Laura Plantation. I have to download a picture of the front of the mansion from a website because of the weather (sorry about that). This colorful, high ceiling, single-floor-elevated-eight-feet-above-the-ground mansion is the traditional creole house, not the white one shown in Django Unchained. It was deserted years before bought, renovated and opened to the public. I was told the original design offers great ventilation for the hot and humid Louisianan summer, but it was altered for the purpose of renovation. Fortunately, some of their original slave cabins were preserved. On the way to the plantation, we saw a lot of fancier houses, where Hollywood had used to shoot movies.

We heard there was the World Naked Bike Ride 2016 going on in the French Quarter. But we just missed it. I hope people had found some comfortable seats to go with the ride.