New Orleans

  New Orleans is in the state of Lousianna deep down in the South of Northern America on the Mississippi River.  It was settled by the French who were kind of tricked into settling in a giant swamp land infested with mosquitos, alligators and lots of other critters - all below sea level.  The Mississippi is 3730 km long and goes from the tip of North America all the way down south to the Gulf of Mexico.  We crossed the longest continuous bridge over water in the world to get to New Orleans, it's called The Lake Pontchartrain Causway and the longest of the bridges which we crossed is 38.35 km long.  The bridges in total span 61km and they were flooded because of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  

  Because New Orleans is below sea level when Hurricane Katrina came through the levies that keep the water out of New Orleans were breached with huge waves that came flooding in.  The town was flooded for over 6 weeks and no-one could get in or out because the bridges were under water.  Everything was under water, there was no sewerage system, gas or electricity or even fresh water, many people died or became very ill.  10 years later you can still see damage from Hurricane Katrina as there was so much destruction and not everything was able to be fixed.  Many people that live in New Orleans still talk about Hurricane Katrina and the devastating effects that followed.

 New Orleans has mostly moved on from the hurricane and people have rebuilt their homes and lives.  It is a vibrant city full of music, culture, and art and of course Voodoo, hauntings and black magic.  New Orleans is well known for its Creole food especially seafood.  Creole is a blend of Southern, West African, French, Italian and Portuguese cooking styles that includes a big mix of spices.  We tried Jambayla, blackened alligator, crawfish, fried shrimp, oysters and catfish, as well as Po Boys, Hush Puppies (deep fried corn meal ball), grits and other weird things.  My favorite was the blackened alligator with the spices - yum!  Drew