A bayou is a place you can navigate in and out of. A swamp is a place where you get stuck, with gators and snakes and such. Imagine spending your life on a swampy river, your house only accessible by boat, the river rising and falling at will. We saw a refrigerator floating by and the guide said it was full of groceries -- that one morning the people woke up to 2 feet of water in the house and the fridge had just floated off. It takes a special kind of person to choose a life like this.
Sadly, we didn't see a single alligator! They're just coming out of hibernation (who knew?) and starting to mate, so we figured they were a little busy.
No worries. There were a variety of Deliverance scenes coming to mind as we wound our way up and down the river to keep us plenty interested and freaked out. For example, there are rope swings hanging over the river that kids use all summer long. Apparently, there's only been one alligator attack on a human in the history of this place: a 12 year old boy had been shooting paint balls at a gator who eventually got fed up and chomped the kid's arm off. Our guide was very matter of fact about it: dumb kid. The guide, incidentally, had lost count of how many snake bites he'd received in his life!
What a cool experience! I'd love to do something like this. Honestly all this traveling in Europe makes me really want to explore the U.S. Your blog will be the perfect guide :)
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