Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Cajun Critters Swamp Tour

When Adam told me we could do a swamp tour if the price was good, I immediately went to google for help. After a quick search on "New Orleans swamp tour" I discovered Cajun Critters Swamp Tour in Westweego, LA. The tour is two hours and costs only $24/person. I reserved a spot on the 9:30am tour the day before but when we got stuck on the Huey P. Long Bridge it became clear we would not be there in time. I called the gentleman who does the tours to inform him of our lateness. He was really nice, explained to me what to do once we got off the bridge, and instructed me to call him when we were near. Fortunately, swamp tours are not very popular on a Tuesday morning in mid-April, so he held the tour for us. We didn't step on the boat until 9:50am.
I don't remember the man's name who gave the tour, he is the same nice man who I spoke with several times on the phone. He and his family have been in New Orleans for over one hundred and fifty years, so he knows his stuff. The tour is great even without alligators, birds, and turtles to watch for. The scenery is beautiful, the bayou is a beautiful thing.

We did see a dozen alligators or so. Some were off on a log basking in the sun, others swam up to the boat. They were not very big, the largest we saw was probably around five feet, the smallest was around 2 feet. The tour guide and his grandson would throw marshmallows at the alligators to get them to swim nearer, it was fun to watch. I want to take one home, they are so cute!

There is a lot of neat stuff to learn about and see, the tour was really enjoyable and since there were so few people on the tour (the five of us plus 3 Chinese tourists) it was really easy to see the animals and take pictures. The guide even brought some pictures of his own for us to look at, including some photos from when Elisa Donovan and his wife swapped places for a week.

1 comment:

Lena said...

that looks like fun! I never did that when I live there, you rock at getting the sight-seeing thing done :)