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Published: October 5th 2011
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This had been a long time coming for us travelling, and probably for anyone still reading this blog......but today we really do reach New Orleans. But we have two things to experience first, one slightly bizarre and the other less so. We drove to a place called Avery Island which was a mass of salt rock with soil on top where a company grow peppers and turn them into a sauce. Yes this is the world HQ for Tabasco Sauce!! My over riding impression was the vinegary smell which made everyone's eyes water. Also the huge gift shop selling all the usual tourist tat but with the Tabasco logo somewhere on it. There was also a tasting station and we’d been promised Tabasco ice cream but the machine was broken 😞 or maybe 😊
Well, it filled up the time until we were scheduled to visit Black Water Swamp where we were going alligator spotting with our very own singing guide. He was a Cajun ex marine and we travelled many miles through this eerie swampland seeing some stunning foliage and lots of birds but only a couple of small alligators. Apparently its the end of the official hunting season so
there’s not many around just now. However we did stop in a remote part of the swamp and the guide summoned, by making a very strange sound (probably like another alligator would make) his well trained 8 foot alligator called Nicole. She obediently swam up to get her chicken by jumping out of the water (lots of girlie shrieks from everyone) Then after she’d swum away (was she real or a Disney animatronic?) the guide got out his guitar and led us in a rousing rendition of ‘You are my sunshine’ and ‘On the Bayou’. Cajun accents are very different from the usual Loiuisiana drawl, kind of clipped and you can hear the French influence now and then. He certainly didn’t have a melodic voice but he gave it some welly!!
And so on to New Orleans otherwise known as Nola or N’Awlins or the Crescent City (because of being built on a bend in the Mississippi) or Sin City, for obvious reasons.
Our hotel, Bienville House, is another old place like the Eola in Natchez. Lots of the rooms are interior and have a tiny window overlooking a hallway and I was expecting us to have one of these,
but we didn’t. We had three big windows from which you could just about see the Mississippi and a 4 poster bed which filled most of the room.
We wanted to eat at a steakhouse almost opposite the hotel as we had a Groupon to use there....had a fairly nice steak with indifferent staff but we ate half price so that’s the important thing.
Our hotel was about 3 blocks from Bourbon Street and that’s where everyone wants to go when they visit N.O. so off we went. It was only early evening (by Bourbon Street criteria) so it wasn’t at its ‘best’ but we got the idea!! Very loud music pumping out of everywhere, people getting drunk quickly,, lots of shops selling a mixture of tourist souvenirs and voodoo related stuff. And further down at one end there were lots of strip clubs and lap dancing clubs.
The music was a mixture of all sorts and most of it very good with no cover charge to wander in and listen. There is also a bylaw in the French Quarter which allows drinking in the street as long as it’s a plastic cup so you buy a drink and make
it last as you wander round. N.O. is big on cocktails and the ones everyone associates with the city are the Hurricane, the Sazerac and the Hand Grenade. I tried the Hurricane and the Sazerac, also a Mojito and a Mimosa – over the next week, not all on the same night! All very potent.
Next was the highlight of the evening.....we went to a place called Preservation Hall which is the original jazz venue in N.O: an old historic building which hasn’t been updated at all, no airconditioning or anywhere to get a drink (you can bring them in with you) and only wooden benches to sit on if you’re lucky.
The music is trad jazz and very very good if you like that kind of music. We stayed for two sets and although it was $12 to go in it was like experiencing a bit of history and so worth it.
We walked back to the hotel via Bourbon Street again, which had definitely got into its stride now. Men stand on the balconies holding strands of Mardi Gras beads and the deal is that if you show them your breasts they throw you the beads. Actually there
were women doing it too but I wasn’t sure if they wanted men to flash something or just wanted to join in the fun and games.
And just to say at this point that the Mardi Gras beads we’re bringing back with us were bought in a shop!
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