Trek America: New Orleans and Texas

The next stop of my Trek America tour was New Orleans. This was a place that I had always wanted to visit so I was excited to experience the nightlife and jazz music.

Before arriving, we stopped off to experience the Honey Island Swamp Tour. This was amazing and provided us with a close up experience with alligators. On our tour, we saw so many alligators as well as the inhabitants of a swamp. There were still ruins of houses that had been destroyed by hurricane Katrina over 10 years on which was sad to see.

Next stop was our hotel which was so nice! I was not expecting this level of accommodation on a budget lodging tour! We stayed at Hotel 504, which was within walking distance to the main strip: Bourbon Street.

One thing you must definitely experience in New Orleans is the nightlife! Bourbon street is lined with so many bars and clubs where you can take your drinks onto the street and hop between each one. We ended up buying a drink called the Hurricane, which has 16 shots in and is massive! This drink destroyed me and because I'm a lightweight, I can't remember much of the night. I know that it did end with us going to a karaoke bar and me choosing to sing Party in the USA.

Hurricane

The next day was greeted with a hangover from hell. The only thing for it was an IHOP! New Orleans in the day isn't as exciting as the night, and can be full of some dodgy people. One thing to bear in mind is your own safety, so never go off on your own and avoid the parts of the city that are known for being dangerous. We did wander around to take some photos, before finishing off the day tasting the local cuisine in a really nice restaurant and watching the famous jazz music.

French Quarter

With New Orleans ticked off my bucket list, we continued our journey across the country through Texas, arriving at Houston!

We didn't really stop over for long in Houston, as we were spending more time in Austin. But we did stay at a really cool hostel which was basically a house!

HI Houston 

In Austin, we explored some really cool shops and made our way to the Hope Outdoor Gallery. I found the cutest puppy in the world here! Afterwards, we went to the Barton Springs which is a really cool place to chill and sunbathe.

Later on in the evening, we witnessed the largest amount of bats in an urban area awakening and flying out from under the bridge. This is worth watching if you ever are in Austin. 

Of course, we couldn't leave Texas without sampling the nightlife, so we made it to 6th Street to hang out where the college kids go to party and play beer pong. Feeling hungover and very tired from the crazy nights we had, it was time to make our way into rural Texas where we stopped over in San Angelo.

We visited an old whore house which was quite funny, but I was feeling so tired after a crazy week of not much sleep that all I wanted to do was nap. After exploring the local town that looked like something out of a western movie, we headed back to the hotel for a well deserved sleep in a double bed.

San Angelo

The final part of this blog post is our stop to the Carlsbad Caverns. This is a national park and it was pretty cool to see the natural structures inside the cave. A word of warning, it gets very cold inside the caves so make sure you take a jacket! It was cool to explore the stalagtites and stalagmites!

Later that evening, we went to a drive-in movie and watched Suicide Squad. This was actually really cool and reminded me of that scene from Grease. It was a great way to spend an evening without hitting the clubs or bars.

The next day it was onto our next stop: Santa Fe! Keep posted for the next installment which will feature Santa Fe and Monument Valley.