Since I had booked a swamp tour for the awkward time of 12.30pm, I could not really get up to much in the morning. I chatted to some of the hostel residents for a while and waited for the bus to pick me up.
The bus ride to the tour centre was a great chance to see some of the city as we passed through many sections picking up other tour participants. The location of the tour was the Bayou swamps about 30 mins outside the city. It was a perfect day to take the airboat out. I had booked the 16 person airboat tour but fortunately for me, there were only another 3 people on the airboat with me so we could pick up some decent speed.
Our tour guide was a lovely young guy who had grown up in the area and knew a lot about the swamplands and the alligators inhabiting them. He had a good accent and spoke incredibly quickly but his enthusiasm and wit was plain to see.
The feeling when you got up some speed was fantastic. Although we only reached speeds of about 35mph, with the air fizzing in your hair and the deafening noise from the giant fan, it felt a lot faster. Also, when you turned the boat, it would skim and slide around the corner giving some wonderful drift cornering. Our guide took us to a secluded spot in the swamp and I managed to spot the first alligator. Here the guide spoke in a lot of detail about the animal and debunked many myths surrounding their reputation. Although they are dangerous and demand respect, they almost never attack humans and the attacks are very rarely fatal. We wound our way around more swampland (mainly river channels with banks at each side) and settled in another area where we got to have a lot closer look at a number of other alligators. The tour guide threw in some marshmallows to attract the alligators, and as these few were small enough not to attack, the tour guide showed his mettle...
After some more cruising around, the guide went to the back of the airboat and brought out a little friend. As the girl behind me screamed, I knew it could only be one thing. I even got to hold the little biter...
With the informative part of the tour over, the guide took an exciting joyride back through the swamp to our home port. Although the tour was relatively expensive, it was well worth the money and i got to see a little more of the country than just the cities.
I got back to the hostel at about 5.30pm and almost immediately left again as one of the hostel workers took me, and a couple of others (Tim, Jesse and Lily) to a charity funk concert in town. Every Wednesday night in Lafayette park, the town would host a free open air concert. Food and beverages were available and all those profits would go to charity (I had a sensational beef brisket and slaw sandwich, 2 in fact). The musicians playing were a local funk group called 'Dumpstaphunk' who were really excellent, although in New Orleans, you should expect nothing less.
After a couple of hours of free music, we headed back to the hostel to prepare for a night out on the town. The group who eventually went out were the same as those who had gone to the concert (a really great bunch of people). Even though Bourbon street is a very touristy place taken over by bars and strip clubs, it is essential for all those new to NOLA to experience once. I shall not go into too much detail about what happened later that night as this is a family rated blog. A good amount of laughter and drinking however did take place (how much, I loathe to remember). Following a funny but embarrassing experience with a bartender girl (which Lily and Jesse, being the authors of the prank, of course videoed) we found our way into a karaoke bar. Although I had previously never imagined any situation where I would be convinced to perform at such a venue, I found myself a mere hour later on stage with Tim and Jesse singing 'Hey Ya!' by OutKast. Unfortunately, I had one of the microphones and the whole performance was caught on camera. Luckily however, Jesse's girlfriend Lily was mainly concentrating on Jesse's 'unique' dance moves. I may have looked and sounded horrendous, but I was outdone.
Being very late (early) we went back to hostel and I crashed out, shattered, by having had a great day.
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