I had been waiting for this day all week! We had the opportunity to see the wildlife of New Orleans. To start the day off, we went to the Bayou Sauvage! This area was a National Wildlife Refuge. We headed out to an area where there was lots of trash! It was disturbing to see how much there was. Every little piece of litter ends up somewhere and this little area had so much. We picked and cleaned up for about 2 hours and ended up filling up the bed of a truck so much that almost everything did not fit. It was so fulfilling because we picked up so much in such a small amount of time! When I saw how much we actually collected, it hit me how our environment is affected by trash. Most of the things we collected were NOT biodegradable. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to place trash where trash should go or even to recycle it. We’re only making the environment worse for future generations. With that being said, I honestly enjoyed this project and helping to make our environment better.
After cleaning up, we went to have lunch and clean ourselves up for the swamp tour! I had been waiting for this all week because of the gators! We’re in Louisiana, one of the main places for gators! This tour was ranked in the top 3 because of its wildlife, which I’m very interested in. Our tour guide, JJ, had grown up on the Bayou and had been in the Marines. Although it was a little tough to understand the things he was saying because of his strong accent, the things he was saying and how much he knew about everything was amazing! We saw many turtles, different species of birds, and baby gators!! We only saw one medium size gator, which was cool, but we mostly saw baby ones, and they looked like logs floating in the water. Most of the time when I thought I spotted a gator, I ended up realizing it was only a log; but our tour guide could spot these guys from a mile away! I was blown away. This guy really knew his stuff and I learned a lot being on this tour.
Lastly, we ended our day eating and walking around the French Quarter! The girls and I ate at the House of Blues while everyone else ate at the Gumbo Shop. After we ate, we walked around looking around the shops and going in an out of all the different Voodoo shops. Some were freaky with the things they had in there. I really enjoyed bonding with our group today, which was nice, but sad because today was our last full day together. It’s a bummer our trip is already ending, but I learned so much and enjoyed the experience!
– Destinee Sevier