Cruising Part Three - Costa Rica - Panama - Costa Rica - New Orleans - Key West - Miami - Duck Key

We awake to find ourselves sailing down the Mississippi towards New Orleans.

The river is very industrial with lots of traffic.

Much of the traffic is moved by tugs pushing vessels, not sure how they know where they are going but they seem pretty good at it!

We had just docked when a large boat pulled alongside, it was time to refuel.

As this was our first stop in the USA we were all subject to a passport check.  As we headed down to disembark the guy advised us there was quite along queue to get through passport control, we decided to go for it anyway.

He was not wrong the queue was reasonably long but we got chatting to a couple in front who wre French Canadians.  We had been talking to them for about 5 mins when one of the crew walked down the outside of the line calling for all non US and Canadian passport holders to follow her, so we dutifully did, and low and behold we ended up in a really short queue - makes a change, then we were hopping onto the shuttle bus, which took us to the French quarter.

We hadn't booked any organised trips so we headed to the tourist information centre and picked up a walking guide for the French quarter.  Tour Guide Tracy was in full swing!!!

St Louis Cathedral .

French Quarter Market

One of the many traditional buildings in the French quarter, not all of them are in as good condition as this one.

A street Jazz Band.

Jackson Square in front of the Cathedral.  There were lots of tarot card readers in front of the cathedral and as you walked around and lots of references to Vodoo.

The street cars travel throughout the city although not through the French quarter for 3 dollars you can travel all day.

So we took one to the Cemeteries.

We arrived at the famous cemeteries at 4:00.

There are three of them off a massive junction, and whilst they are really close to all of the traffic they are eerily quiet, we didn't stay long found it quite creepy!!!  Apparently once a body goes into the tomb, it has to remain sealed for 12 months, so if another member of the family dies before the 12 months is up they go into some kind of holding tomb............. Due to the heat and humidity at the end of 12 months not much is left but bones (sorry probably too much info!!).

We took the street car back down Canal Street and headed back to the boat....time for cocktails.

That night we were spoilt by the most amazing jazz band.

After a truly amazing set, we were further spoilt when they played walking through the restaurant.

This was definitely one of the best nights of the whole holiday. All of this was followed by a Michael Buble tribute that was fantastic.

As you can see we had a great time.

The next day we had until 4:00 p.m. In New Orleans, so we took a ride on a traditional paddle steamer.

 

The only one left in New Orleans with a steam engine.

It was a great trip down the Mississippi on this beautiful old boat.

Was nice sailing past our cruise ship, waving to our fellow passengers.

This is the entrance to the canal that runs off the Mississippi it was down here that one of the most serious levy breaches occurred during hurricanee Katrina.

Following the trip we headed back to ship for a late lunch.

At just after 4:00 we left New Orleans to travel back down the Mississippi, then out to sea on our way to Key West.

The next day was spent at sea, so was relaxing, with some sun bathing and of course some cocktails!

That night we had dinner with les and Lin, and a couple that we had met over a lunch a few days earlier, Rick and Donna who were from Orlando.  We had a great evening, good food and great company.

We were the entertained in the cabaret lounge with a tribute to Broadway and the West End.

Hairspray!

Was hard to believe the cruise was almost over.

Part four to follow