Sonya's Blog - Day 231 - Natchez Steamboat and Zulu Carnival
Sonya’s Blog - February 8th - Day 231 - Natchez Steamboat and Zulu Carnival
Today is Lundi Gras and there is lots happening in New Orleans. We are booked onto a Steamboat, the Historic Natchez. We are also going to check out the Zulu Carnival that is on the waterfront.
By the time the shuttle got us to our drop off location, we had about an hour before we needed to board the Natchez. We wandered over to where the boat was and picked up our tickets. Part of the Zulu Carnival was right next to the Natchez so we wandered over to check it out. The carnival has 4 stages with entertainment on each stage. There are also various booths with food and merchandise, if you would like to purchase anything. We just watched the on band for a bit and then went to board the boat. The band that was on the stage was probably a church group, they were having lots of fun up there, but their harmony was a little off. The guy playing the piano, though, was amazing.
Blake had bought tickets that included lunch. The cruise was set to start at 11:30 and did not end until 1:30, so lunch was necessary. It was only $10 more, per ticket, for the buffet which was well worth it. Isaac was only $20, including his lunch so he was super cheap. He ate more than the rest of us, which was kind of amusing. Boarding started at 11 and we got on board at about 11:15. They seated us immediately for lunch, which Isaac was super excited about as he was starving by this time. The buffet wasn’t too fancy, some traditional fare for the area. Beans and rice, cooked okra (I skipped this, I really don’t like okra that much), dirty rice (very good), fried catfish and bread pudding for dessert. There were also small sides with pasta salad and coleslaw. That fried catfish was sure tasty! While we were eating a guy was announcing the sites of New Orleans and giving us a little history. When lunch was over, the jazz band set up and started playing some classic Jazz tunes. We went outside and found a seat, listened to the band and checked out the views. There are a lot of transport ships on the Mississippi, so we saw lots of those. It is difficult to sea a lot of the neighbourhoods, due to the levees, you can mostly just see the roofs of houses. It is interesting to note how much lower the land looks compared to the river and easy to see how if there is a breach in the levee, well then the water would just pour in (of course, that is exactly what happened during Katrina).
Speaking of Hurricane Katrina, which happened 10 years ago, but the people of New Orleans are still feeling it’s effects and it won’t soon be forgotten. There is still rebuilding going on and it is a common topic of conversation for the locals. On each of our shuttle trips, the driver points out areas that were completely under water or other destruction and they talk about the clean up effort and the time following Katrina. It took a really long time to open up businesses, even the banking and gas stations. Fuel was scarce, so they had to be careful how they used it. They also couldn’t get cash, but when stores opened they didn’t want cash anyhow. The banks were still not opened and there was nowhere to deposit the money. Since there were lots of looters about, cash just wasn’t safe. None of the terminals worked in the stores for credit cards, but the stores preferred to just write down your credit card number and hoped it was good when everything started working again. They figured it was safer than having a bunch of cash around. Everyone in New Orleans got a 3 month reprieve from the banks on interest and fees on their credit cards and bank accounts following Katrina, because there was no way to pay them. The phones were down (both landline and cell) and the power was off for a long time following the storm. Furthermore, a lot of the city was underwater for a long time.
One stage of the Zulu Carnival:
When our steamboat cruise was finished we went and checked out the Zulu Carnival. They have a huge carnival/festival on Lundi Gras followed by a big parade on Mardi Gras. They have many characters that are a feature of the Krewe of Zulu and we saw a few of them. The kids got a picture with the Zulu King and we also saw the Zulu Prince and Witchdoctor. There were many other characters, but I am not sure who they were. The Zulus are a very old tradition in the Mardi Gras parades, first appearing in 1909. We wandered from stage to stage to check out the entertainment. The main stage had the best entertainment and we stayed there the longest. We all danced and sang to “Dancing in the Streets” and enjoyed watching a lady in front of us dancing to a Michael Jackson song, she had good moves!
We also found another stage, that was a Lundi Gras Festival. Much smaller and only one stage, but still on the waterfront. We were down by the Outlet Shopping Mall by this time. We wandered in there to find the washrooms and Natasha and I checked out some of the stores. Lots of Mardi Gras stuff for sale, some of it is pretty garish.
We listened to the band on the Lundi Gras stage for a bit and then decided we should head back towards the shuttle pick up zone. We walked down Royal Street, because it is our favourite. It was super busy, with lots of buskers and people milling about. At the end of our wanderings we found a nice cafe, which was only 1/2 block from our pick up spot. They served great coffee and had a nice open cafe, so it was our favourite coffee shop in the French Quarter. Plus, our coffees were served in real cups, not crappy, environmentally unsound styrofoam cups like every other coffee shop in States uses. Wish we had found it the first day.
We were pretty tired when we got back, so we took care of Kizmet, had supper and called it a night.
Sonya