Swamp Tour

The final installment of my blog recap of the New Orleans tour :)  We took a boat tour with Pearl River Eco Tours (yay Groupon deal!), and it was fab!  We toured through a river, an oxbow, and then finally a bayou.  The trees were gorgeous, and our guide showed us some of the wildlife – birds, snakes, and of course, gators!  Our guide had a lot of interesting information to share about the history and culture of the area, including Katrina effects.  It was really an awesome experience in all :)  Here are some shots:

This gator was just hanging around the dock and our boat waiting to be fed – closest I think I’ve ever been to one!

Treat time – the guide would feed them hot dogs on a pole

a video of the gator gettin' a treat

a boat washed up near their pier from Katrina, I think he said from 50 miles away!  We saw so many bizarre things that had been “moved” by the storm – random TV on the side of the river bank, a street road sign in the middle of the river, and a 2 story house that had washed down the river and sat in a new spot of land. 

Riding down the river

a really old bridge … looks so cool!  And sorta different – the entire middle section of the bridge lifts straight up if a large boat needs to pass through… which the guide says only happens about once every 10 years, since the river is no longer used for transportation of goods.

of course I took something close to a bajillion pictures of the bridge :)

I think this is in the oxbow – starts to get really pretty with the trees and plants :)

moss was everywhere!

the water in the bayou was reallllllyyyyy still and super reflective.  soooo pretty!

spotted another gator…. also saw several birds, an owl, a couple of snakes, and a lizard. 

I never would have thought I’d want to do a swamp tour, but I’m so glad it popped up on Groupon, and after I looked at the website, I was sold – it’s really so much more beautiful than I imagined, and such a cool experience. 

** facebookers – there is a video in the original post **