Day 23: New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama

Today we went on a guided tour of New Orleans. The tour started with a trip to the Lower 9^th Ward, the area devestated by Hurricance Katrina in 2005. It was so incredibly sad to see houses in various states of decay, or only the foundations remaining, or eight foot high weeds covering entire blocks where houses used to stand. What was even more unsettling was seeing some of the Americans on our tour with us running around taking pictures and laughing like it was some tourist attraction. Made me sick and almost made Alex cry. The guide told us how houses were not properly searched when the waters subsided, so families returned to their homes and saw the markings on their house stating that no bodies were found inside, only to start cleaning up and find say, their mother buried under the fridge, or their daughter hanging from a fence post. Absolutely heartbreaking.

There was some reconstruction happening, although some of the houses seemed like wanky architechtural achievements that looked way too expensive for the area. We were told by the tour guide that for the same price of one of those houses (which can supposedly float) a whole row of the old style of houses could be built. The whole experience just made us wish there was something real that we could do to assist.

The tour guide thankfully took us to the Lower 9^th first so that we could finish the tour wish some of the more pleasant aspects of New Orleans. We visited the French Quarter, the Garden District and even one of the cities famous cemetaries, where all are buried above ground. There were lots of interesting old buildings to look at. In the cemetary we noticed that there were impossible amounts of people buried in some of the crypts. The tour guide told us that when more space was required, a large ram would be used to crush the remains already present and make space for new ones. Very creepy.

After the tour we left New Orleans and headed for Mobile in Alabama. We drove the 100 or so miles in the dark, actually passing through the state of Mississippi, which we will return to later. We found a Wal-Mart just outside the town and got some sleep, which I certainly welcomed after my activities the night before.