Louisiana Swamp Tours

The Rookery At Lake Martin 2012

2012-01-30T12:14:00.009-06:00

www.lakemartinswamptours.com

Right on schedule about mid January, the egrets and herons began to stage their nests.

All the trees are bare in January and February, so birdwatching and photography is easy and unobstructed by foliage. The main color of the swamp in winter is grey.

Soon the grass and clover will start to green things up as seen behind this Great Egret who is sporting some breeding blumage.

Although some people are surprised that the herons start nesting in mid-January, the first nesters of the season lay their eggs in the first week of December.

And that would also be the largest bird that nests here, the Bald Eagle.

Soon after the Bald Eagles begin nesting, they are followed by ospry,

owls and hawks,

and then the Great Egrets, and Great Blue Herons,

about mid-January. Those two of the heron family are the largest and a larger body mass may account for the early nesting. For about two months from mid-January through mid-March the large herons expand in population in the rookery to the tune of several thousand.

By late February or early March the Rosette Spoonbills are in courtship,

and soon after that, March 15th, Tri-colored, Louisiana Herons, and...

Little Blue Herons,

along with Cattle Egrets start arriving by the thousands every day.

Black Crowned Night Herons arrive to nest in April, along with their cousins who sport the Yellow Crowns.

By early May, the Black Bellied Whistling Ducks should be warming up some eggs

And last but not least, to start nesting at Lake Martin is the White Ibis, and Snowy Egrets who begin as late as June.

I am Marcus de la Houssaye,owner and operator of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours

If you would like to contact me for more information or to make a reservation for a Breaux Bridge swamp tour, I can be contacted by cell phone at 337 298 2630

all photos are copyrighted and courtesy of Claude Nall

The One Who Walks Alone

2012-01-26T16:23:00.002-06:00

The Importance Of Trees

2012-01-18T09:36:00.001-06:00

This is an amazing video and some straight up information.

Louisiana Swamp Tours In Winter

2012-01-14T03:31:00.011-06:00

Yes the phone is ringing and I am booking tours, but we have had ice in the yard for the last three days, and yes it does freeze here along the Gulf coast every winter.

If you would like to do a de la Houssaye's Louisiana Swamp Tour with me, click on the link here for more info, or call 337 298 2630.

The above photo of the alligator was taken on 12/30/2011, and the photo below also the same day, and notice that some of us were wearing short sleeves, and some of us were wearing shorts and sandals, as was yours truely.

The temperature on New Years weekend was near 80'F making for very fine tours, but it is not always that way in winter time.

The photo above and the two photos below were taken that weekend which is one of the neatest things about touring in the winter time.

Incredible, beautiful sunsets.

I am getting a lot of calls from people who are planning ahead for swamp tours in warmer weather. And although I do swamp tours in the winter, please bear in mind that I am a deer hunter and a professional tracker.

What that means is: I help people find lost and wounded deer during deer season.

As a team, I work with my Louisiana Catahoulas to search and trail blood and help hunters conserve wildlife.

Sometimes I come in very late at night and often after midnite because I may drive 100 miles one way to help hunters find their deer.

3 AM, July 2011, full moon setting over Lake Martin,
photo courtesy of Claude Nall

So, this time of year(December, January, February) with ice on the ground, I may not be doing Louisiana swamp tours on a regular basis, but the deer season ends in February and as we say, I make hay while the sun shines.

A fine typical 8 point buck shot on private property near Jena, La.

The point I am getting to here is: I may not answer the phone during deer season if I am hunting, and as you can see in the photo below, I may be 25' up in a tree, in a climbing tree stand.

Under the circumstances, often my phone is on silent and sometimes I go days before getting to all my messages. If you leave a message, I may not return your call in a timely manner, so please call back if you do not hear from me after you leave a voice message on my cell. My new waterproof phone is great, but the AT&T cell phone service provided, leaves much to be desired, and neither you nor I can know if I am actually getting all the messages you may leave for me. I would like to talk to you and discuss your travel plans, so please call back if you do not hear from me. Blame it on AT&T, not me!

Presently, most of the calls I am getting are last minute, and hoping to get on a Breaux Bridge Swamp Tour tour on short notice, or people are inquiring about springtime and making reservations for the warm weather, sunshine, green grass, flowers and nesting birds which are all abundant starting in the month of March.

Once again my cell phone number is 337 298 2630, and please do not text me or look for my email address, I am old school, and I want to talk to you. The only way I can guarantee you a seat in my boat is if you make a reservation. I work with another tour guide and all total we have three Louisiana swamp tour boats, and are capable of doing a tour for up to 50 people at a time.

These boats are flat bottom, aluminum crawfish boats powered by quiet, 4 stroke outboard motors, and are considered to be the ultimate swamp vessel designed for fishing crawfish in the Atchafalaya Basin swamp.

Each boat is outfitted with comfortable padded seats with backrests and are guided by educated, hunters and fishermen who grew up on the bayou, and have we lived here all our life.

You can get more info by visiting some of my other sites such as www.lafayetteswamptours.com

de la Houssaye's Louisiana Swamp Tour August 2011

2011-12-09T12:51:00.001-06:00

It was was hot, and I am talking like 100' every day for the whole month!

This is not typical, and about 5-10 degrees above normal?

As a result, I was limited to doing sunrise and sunset tours in order to avoid the heat of the day.

The video below was shot in one day at sunrise and again at sunset.

Two Louisiana swamp tours in one day.

Swamp trip In alligator's homeland

2011-12-02T18:52:00.001-06:00

November, 2011

The Bayou Swamp Tour

2011-12-02T12:02:00.000-06:00

Best Bed And Breakfast At Lake Martin

2011-11-19T10:14:00.014-06:00

Minutes a way from Breaux Bridge, St. Martinsville, and Lafayette,

is a really comfy and unique accomodation on the edge of the rookery, and about a one minute walk to the alligators nest.

So, if you are coming to do my Louisiana Swamp Tour

I suggest you stay at The Cottage at Lake Martin.

I Love The Autumn Season!

Tastefully decorated,

clean, and well appointed kitchen,

and dining area.

One bedroom,

one bath,

with a foldout couch,

this little camp in the woods can easily sleep 4-5 people, and you are about a 10 minute walk to where I launch my world famous Louisiana Swamp Tours.

Best Swamp Tour In Louisiana

2011-11-06T01:51:00.013-05:00

Well... that's what I keep hearing! And I don't want to toot my own horn, but that's what people are saying again, so if you want to join me for a Louisiana swamp tour, you can call me at 337 298 2630 for reservations.

These guys recently came from Belgium and Spain,

and not only thanked me for a great Louisiana swamp tour,

they later friended me on Facebook and commented that I had not only helped them understand what is going on in the Louisiana swamps, and the united States, but also the rest of the world.

Oh, I love this time of the year,

natural air conditioning,

the trees are turning colors,

and the pair of Bald Eagles are about to nest!

The Coreopsis are blooming,

and everywhere we turn nature is smiling at us.

Home Grown Louisiana Satsumas

2011-11-04T01:54:00.005-05:00

You can call me at 337 298 2630 to make a reservation for a Louisiana Swamp Tour,
and buy oranges from the local area at the landing, before or after the tour.

We have organic Louisiana grown satsumas everyday at Lake Martin Landing. You can call Russell at 337 277 1859 to place your order in advance. Sweet and flavorful! Best if you call in advance to insure he is there, because he is sometimes on the road making deliveries.

Satsumas are the easy to peel oranges.

Russell has assured me that he does not spray anything in any season. The only thing that goes into these oranges is sunshine, rain and pure Louisiana Teche Ridge soil.

These trees are loaded down, and need to be picked. Help us out here, because we don't pick until we have orders going out and they are moving everyday. See you at the lake!

Justin Townes Earle - Louisiana 1927

2011-10-15T16:56:00.000-05:00

My Cousin Darlene And The Bear

2011-10-14T07:13:00.003-05:00

My cousin Darlene, made the news with a bear in her back yard. While her yard is about 25 miles south of the Cypress Island Swamp where I do my Louisiana swamp tours at Lake Martin,

the bear most likely came through this area on it's annual migration from north Louisiana to the Gulf coast last month.

The Louisiana Black Bear is a protected species that has now expanded in population to the point where discussion of an open hunting season is on the table.

The annual fall migration follows the Mississippi River south to the Three Rivers area, and then heads into the Atchafalaya swamp, and finally the last leg is an ancient stream bed of the Mississippi which is now a chain of lakes such as Spanish Lake near New Iberia, and Lake Martin where I do my world famous swamp tours.

A Wonderful Weekend

2011-10-03T02:48:00.009-05:00

with temps in the 50's on Friday night, we danced at the Blue Moon Saloon without sweating...

and the next day I guided a Lake Martin Swamp Tour with temps around 80 degrees. Perfect weather!

My new friends from Austin and New York really made my weekend so special

with lots of smiles, laughter, and inspiration to celebrate life in all it's glory.

Although intelligent blondes are an oxy-moron for most people, lucky me to have 3 atomic blondes in my company, all at one time!-)

We did not get to see the Bald Eagles on any of the de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours this weekend, but I did manage to snap a pretty cool photo from 100 meters away when the pair arrived about 2 weeks ago.

Well, I have another special group coming out tomorrow morning, so...

See you later alligator!

Swamp People Are Hot!

2011-08-18T10:53:00.006-05:00

The temperatures are once again in the mid 90's now that the rain has stopped,

and the swamp is definately wet and wild,

as seen in the photos above and below!

That's right, an aliigator just ate a six foot long Grey Rat Snake.

You saw it here first!

And this is the kind of action you may be priveledged to enjoy if you are with me on a Louisiana Swamp Tour in August.

So we are back to the sunrise and sunset schedule.

We will always see more wildlife this time of the year if we tour in the cool of the day,

as seen above and below,

when we followed this very large gator before he dove under and exploded away.

Typically, when these big boys go down, you don't see them come up again.

Wildlife was everywhere on this particular day,

and it is hard to keep the boat moving to make a little breeze and evaporate our sweat, with so many photo opportunities.

Not only is Lake Martin pristine and beautiful,

there are many tall shady Bald Cypress in this swamp to shield us from the blazing tropical solar radiation.

As you can see in the photo above, Valyrie, my Louisiana Catahoula is intently focused on something slithering in the water, most likely a little gator, as they are everywhere in the vacinity of the mama gators nest.

Well by the time we got to the now famous post card from Louisiana tree,

I was drenched with perspiration,

but you do what you have to do, to put a smile on your guests face.

One of the neat insects of this time of year is the seven year locust.

It lives underground in the roots of trees for six years as a larvae,

and then in it's seventh year, it tunnels up into the air and sunshine and sheds it's ecktoskeleton, as seen below,

and metamophoses into an adult, and lives in the tree tops.

The seven year locusts are one of the major noise makers buzzing in the trees of Louisiana swamps this time of year, along with the symphony of tree frogs.

If you would like to join me for a Louisiana Swamp Tour, you can call me at 337 298 2630 for reservations. And please bear in mind...tours are by reservation only.

Jambalaya on the Bayou - Hank Williams

2011-08-14T20:53:00.000-05:00

It Is All Good!

2011-08-14T01:22:00.004-05:00

Trip advisor promotes them self as: Reviews you can trust. Well not in my opinion!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g40065-d1553650-Reviews-De_la_Houssaye_s_Swamp_Tours-Carencro_Louisiana.html

The link above will take you to the site.

I am posting this because after 4 rave reviews in the first half of this year it looks like the owner of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours(that's me) has gone off the deep end OR someone is trying to hurt me.

I spoke to several other tourist operators of hotels, B&B, and restaurants, and they all told me the same thing: everyone hates trip advisor because they let every wackadoo who want's to post bogus reviews, do so. And worse than that it appears that they allow suspicious reviews that clearly are fabricated by competitors.

The review below is a case in point, regarding the wackadoos.

My family decided a swamp tour would be an interesting thing to do while en route to our vacation destination. We met up with Marcus who was to be our tour guide. I know I will not be able to do this review justice. It is hard to convey in words just how terribly rude someone is capable of being.
The rudeness started tight from the beginning when my 75 year old father decided he was not really feeling well enough to participate. When Marcus realized my father was staying behind, we were treated to a gripe session of how it's not really worth his time to take us out! There were still seven of us left! I should have said forget it at that point but we went out of our way to see a swamp and the kids really wanted to see it. The next problem was when we were putting the four year old in the life jacket. ( good thing we brought one since one was not offered to us!). Marcus snapped at us to hurry up and put it on and sit down!
Finally we were underway. Instead of telling us about the flora and fauna if the swamp, we listened to Marcus talk on his cell phone about government, book deals, and finances! When we stopped an alligator, he finally remembered us and tried yo engage the alligator by feeding it. Finally, we thought things were looking up. We were wrong. When a few of us dared to ask any questions, we were again met with rudeness and belittling. Then we were treated with the most crazy preachings of how our government is sending us to hell and discriminatory remarks against other cultures. A few conspiracy theories were also offered for our listening pleasure. While all this was going on, we just sat there mute. By that time, we were afraid to talk much. We thought it a very real possibility that he might dump us out of the boat and leave us. As I understand it , Marcus is pissed that the government is spraying and killing vegetation in the swamp. Some areas were roped off with signs stating no boats. At one point, Marcus spent a bit of time uprooting one of the signs.

You know, usually I'm a pretty easy going person. Nothing usually bothers me do for me to write this you need to understand the experience was even more horrendous than I was able to make it sound. I am a first grade teacher who is also a girl scout leader. I am a pretty good customer service type of person.

If you are considering a swamp tour, please find someone other than this guy.

My response:
First of all, after doing 2 early morning tours in the cool of the day, I decided to override my common sense, and indulged these people at 1PM in 95' temps, in the middle of July. Second, after 4 other people and her elderly father had the common sense to NOT do the tour because of the heat, I commented that I have to stop doing tours in the middle of the day due to the heat, because people can't take it. That is not a gripe session, it is one sentence, and it is stating common sense. Then she insinuates that there were no life jackets offered, and I snapped at them to put the kid in a life jacket and sit down. That is a lie!

Actually, the child had the life jacket on before even getting into my boat, and I noted that the full body vested life preserver was going to be too hot in 95' temps. The parents both ignored my offer of a cooler life preserver!

After we arrived at the alligator nest and visited the momma gator, this woman suggested that the female alligator urinates on her eggs to incubate them, I corrected her on that, advising that the nest is an incubator of decomposing plants which produces heat, and because alligators are cold blooded, her urine is not warm like ours. I guess first grade teachers don't like being corrected?

I suppose she is also OK observing the destruction of the natural beauty

and ecology of the plants in the swamp and I am not,

and because plant control had just come out

and sprayed herbicides everywhere I do tours, I WAS pissed!

I also suggested that my ancestors have been fighting terrorism since 1492. So if I made discriminating comments about other cultures(against white people?), as she suggested, as a native American, I have that right considering what happened to my ancestors and the land on this continent after white people arrived here!

Toward the end of the tour, the little girl in the life preserver was about to faint(seriously!) from heat stroke, so I suggested that they remove the preserver, and wet the girls skin on the arms and legs, and I turned the boat into the wind to cool the girl off. I went out of my way to do a tour for them at 1PM in the heat of the day, so they could stay on the vacation schedule and do a swamp tour for their children who are fans of Swamp People. At this time of year, I do sunset and sunrise tours, because it is cool, and pleasant, and I make my best effort to do quality tours. I went out of my way to serve these people in the heat of the day, and not for their money, but for their convienence and to accomodate THEIR schedule. I also took good care of them, and rendered first aid when her daughter was suffering from heat stroke due to an inappropriate life vest that the PARENTS provided.

And the bottom line: ALMOST everyone was delighted with the tour, especially all the kids who enjoyed the show I put on with the momma alligator. In fact almost everyone enjoyed the tour so much, her husband gave me a generous tip. Apparently this first grade teacher who made numerous misleading insinuations and false accusations against me, AND accused ME of being in a bad mood, needs an attitude adjustment herself. And apparently she has a lot to learn about honesty is the best policy.

And if I discriminate against another culture: It would have to be lying, mean-spirited white people.

As they say: "No good deed goes unpunished"

And....we keep doing good deeds anyway, because that is who we are, and what we do.

Swamp People On Tour

2011-08-03T07:06:00.010-05:00

The popularity of the Swamp People television show is possibly the best thing that has ever happened to the swamp tour industry. So many people are coming to south Louisiana to personally experience some of what they see on TV.

Hi, I am Marcus de la Houssaye, owner and operator of
de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours at Lake Martin.

It has been a great summer so far.

This momma gator has been on the job 24/7 guarding her nest, and making it really easy for me to put on a show for everyone wanting an upclose and personal experience with a mean alligator.

I am having boatload after

boatload of families coming out for some

real life swamp people experiences.

And I am here to warn you: this is not the time of year for mid-day tours.

Early morning is predictably the best for photography

Not only is it cool,

calm, and beautiful,

we will see a lot of wildlife at sunrise and sunset.

And the heating of the day is not only beyond comfortable, it produces the rain this time of year.

So, though the rain was nice and cool, often there were lightning bolts near the rainbows.

The Swamp People television show is possible the best thing to happen to the swamp tour industry since marshmallows was invented.

But seriously, there has been a return to the swamp like I have not seen since the 90's.

If you and your family would like to visit and join me at Lake Martin or in the Atchafalaya Basin for a Louisiana swamp tour I can be reached on my new water proof cell phone at 337 298 2630.

de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours April 17, 2011

2011-07-05T12:15:00.000-05:00

The Best Swamp Tour In Louisiana

2011-06-30T21:59:00.003-05:00

Well folks that isn't me. In fact also let me infatically state: I am not perfect either. And today is proof of my imperfections.

But first let me state why I am not the best swamp tour in Louisiana.

Because I don't want to be the best. If you are the best, you begin to think you have no room for improvement, and that could be boring, but worse, when you are the best, someone is always trying to knock you down.

For instance I just got a notice from Trip Advisor of a review of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours , and you can click the link here: to go to the Trip Advisor site and read the rave reviews of my tour along with the two suspicious ones who attempt to knock me down. Regarding the on titled: RUDE... I assume if that really happened to them, that they dailed a wrong number, as in one similar to mine, and some one yelled at them, and the reviewer thought it was me doing the yelling! Things are not always what they seem.

Now to get on with today and my imperfections. It started with me changing the impeller in my outboard motor that pushes my tour boat. The impeller is the rubber core of the water pump which keeps my 4 stroke engine cool. Of course I have done this simple repair before, but not on this make.

To make a long story short, I installed the propeller but pulled something out that I could not get back in. Despite my best efforts, I knew I needed some professional mechanical assistance. So I left a couple hours ahead of time to head for the repair shop. My first stop however was not the repair shop, it was at my front gate where I picked up a couple of stray dogs coming out of the woods and put them in the kenneel in the back of my truck along with the Catahoulas that were already on board. I did not want to go back to the house to kennel them, because I was already pressed for time, and I did not want to leave these dogs loose near a highway. We then stopped at the 1st outboard repair shop which was already engaged in a rush order. That ain't happening

So, plan B, I went on down the road to another outboard marine repair shop on the way to the tour, where they attempted to help, but were basically suggesting I get on a waiting list for two weeks, and leave my motor with them. NOT two days before the 4th of July weekend.

Plan C: resulted in me going by a friend's house to borrow his 25 HP outboard and notified my guests, now waiting at the landing, that I was on the way. After arriving there and being unable to start my friend's borrowed motor, I was unable to launch my boat and do the tour. At this point my guests were a bit disenchanted with my imperfections and two ladies advised me they were leaving due to my unreliability to launch this morning's tour. Before leaving, they took pictures of the overcrowded conditions of the dog kennel in the back of my truck. And,I could tell by the look on their face that they have probably been watching too much Animal Planet and would most likely report me for being cruel to my animals in the overcrowded conditions. Oh well, at least they were not subject to the possibility of being run over by a high speed moving vehicle!

As I continued to attempt to start the motor, the next group decided to pull out. Unfortunately, neither of these gave me an opportunity to discuss options such as my friend who was about to come in with a tour boat ready to go, and take them out. I let these folks leave and took the rest of the people down in the swamp to visit the mama gator who was guarding her nest on the bayouside.

Let me be the first to admit, I am not perfect, but I did my best to provide for a swamp tour for my guests who had a reservation to do so. Obviously, I let them down.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day, and I did end my day, by reassembling my outboard after visiting a third repair shop in Henderson and borrowed a tool to make it all happen.

So here it is I am facing a new day and a new month, with beaucoup Lake Martin swamp tours scheduled for this 4th of July weekend. And I have a working outboard motor with a working water pump!

We press forward in spite of our imperfections and unfavorable reviews of unreliability and rudeness.

It is a beautiful day, and I'll see you at the lake!

The Best Swamp Tour In Breaux Bridge

2011-06-19T14:32:00.012-05:00

That's what people are telling me they heard is that I have the best Louisiana swamp tour, and that they went and researched reviews, and so apparently my daughter was right when she curiously asked me a few years ago; "Daddy, are you the world's most famous swamp tour guide?"

A stock photo of me and Christina by Philip Gould

Little children say the funniest things!

At any time, if you come to do a tour with me, I will be the best swamp tour guide I can be, and after 25 years of doing tours for my friends and guests from all over the world, being the best is not as important as being happy and sharing the rich culture, wildlife and humor Cajun Country is famous for, and that's what really matters to me.

Now, if you are wondering if we are flooded over here, I need to advise you to the contrary, the flood is on the other side of a huge levee twenty miles east of me. And furthermore, we are suffering from low water due to a drought, so as far as I am concerned, I wish the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers would install some distribution outlets in the west protection levee and send some water our way, because we need it and it is wrong to try to control flooding by containment, when nature, if we were doing nothing, would deal with floods by allowing it to distribute over a 200 mile wide flood plain that is no longer allowed to flood. A "controlled" distribution would NOT ALLOW peoples farmland or houses to flood, because it would spread out the flood waters and prevent it from rising so high, and thus be a be a better flood control program, it would also be good for wildlife and the coastal wetlands environment. Helloooooo! A floodplain is supposed to flood periodically.

Below is a collection of photos by my friend Claude Nall. All photos are copyrighted and courteously shared for your viewing pleasure. These photos were all taken last week at the swamp surrounding Lake Martin, over a period of 3 days and includes sunsets, a full moon rising and setting, and wildlife all in one of the most amazing and beautiful landscapes in Louisiana.

I will label the photos and especially the wildlife before I publish this post, so you don't have to wonder what they are.

Above is a sunset photo shot from the boat landing, where you can go and take photos like this from land without being in a boat. And below is the full moon rising in the Bald Cypress trees.

A Great Egret flew into this shot at just the right moment to add a big plus to this photo. Claude was not trying to capture the bird, just the sunset. This photo is a good example of how exciting and spontaneous Lake Martin can be for photography, bird watching, or nature study.

Great Egret(right) and Anhinga Cormorant(left)

Three Great Egrets in the early morning fog

Black Bellied Whistling Duck

A Great Egret eating shad

Below are three photos of the blossoms of American Lotus, which are firmly entrenched in the ecology of Lake Martin.

Above, a baby American Alligator, which is obviously a baby, evident by the large eyes. When you compare the proportion of the eyes to the head in comparison to the photos below, you can see an adult alligator below has smaller eyes in proportion to the size of the head.

If you like what you see, and you are planning a trip to south central Louisiana to visit Lafayette and Breaux Bridge, and maybe do a swamp tour with me, I can be reached by calling my cell phone for reservations at 337 298 2630.

And here is the thought for the day: "If a man says something in the swamp and there is no woman around, is he still wrong?" ;-)

The last photo is a save the best for last, it is the full moon setting over Lake Martin at about 3:30AM with the orange glow of Lafayette in the background. Enjoy!

Johnny Cash - 1978 - Cajun Born - Ruso.wmv

2011-06-19T00:44:00.000-05:00

My Wild Louisiana, a preview of some raw footage...

2011-06-15T22:44:00.001-05:00

Hi, I am Marcus de la Houssaye, owner and operator of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours, at Lake Martin. I am also the host of an upcoming reality TV program, called My Wild Louisiana now in production, and soon to be broadcast.

I decided to release a little of the unedited raw footage of an interesting encounter I had with an American Alligator, on tour with a group of college students from Tulane University, a couple of months ago.

The dog baying the gator is Jesse, who is a Louisiana Catahoula, and he bays a gator as quickly as he would a wild hog! Jesse will be with me on the TV program and also works as a professional blood tracking dog with me during deer season. In the spring and the fall when we aren't doing Lake Martin Swamp Tours, Jesse is a hog dog.

Lafayette Swamp Tours and Taco Sisters

2011-06-11T06:55:00.002-05:00

It is getting warm, so my Louisiana swamp tours at sunrise and sunset are becoming the norm.

And signs of summer are everywhere, such as the American Lotus, now in full bloom.

After the tour yesterday, Christina and I had lunch in Lafayette at Taco Sisters,

home of the smoked fish taco, on the corner of Vermillion and Johnston in Lafayette.

To quote Christina; "These burritos are out of the box. This is the best Mexican food, I've ever eaten."

She had a BBQ brisket burrito and I had the grilled yellowfin tuna taco with the homemade salza.

OMG, was it good, and I also ordered a large veggie salad,

thinking we'd have some take home, but we ate it all. There was no leftovers. The cheese, black olives, tomatoes, greens, and little wedges of apple, topped with house vinnegrete dressing made every mouthful an explosion of flavor, AND, I only used half of the dressing!

And now that I think about it, the salad dressing was the only thing we had to take home, and I did just that.

Open for Lunch
Monday-Friday 11am-6pm
Saturday 11am-2pm

234-TACO (234-8226)
to order ahead and pick up at the drive through

If you are looking for a place to satisfy a healthy vegetarian diet and have fresh smoked fish, shrimp, meat and poultry too, Taco Sisters can do.

There are more restaurants per capita in the city of Lafayette, than any othr city in the US, and that means competition is stiff, and the food is often very original and almost always has a Cajun twist.

Mexican, Cajun, Mediterreanian, Japanese sushi, or Creole, no matter what you chose for lunch or dinner, the homegrown ingredients and wild caught Louisiana seafood

Lafayette is famous for, will not only satisfy you, it will surprize you with explosions of natural flavor.

Too many travel writers have described our Cajun food as spicy, which is misleading and inacurrate. Described in one word: it should be flavorful. Although for some dishes, and certainly with some chefs, spicy could be an understatement. And in my opinion, a chef who uses too much pepper spice, is not authentic culturally, and not that good.

You will have no problem with the flavor or freshness of the Taco Sisters.

What amazing food Lafayette has.

Prepare to taste the most delicious tacos you've ever had, made with fresh smoked Gulf tuna, smoked Gulf shrimp or savory meats and poultry. Delicious brisket burritos, veggie tacos and salads made with fresh ingredients and lots of love. No frozen food, just homemade specialties with premium ingredients.

I am providing a link to the Taco Sisters website here,

and as you can see in the pictures, they have a wonderful outdoor dining area

with a colorful flower garden and some interesting artistic fences.

Located at the corner of Vermilion and Johnston Streets in Lafayette.

Typical of Lafayette natives, these women are some of the friendliest and happiest in the world: open for lunch till 6PM, so if you get there late enough in the day, it could suffice as an early evening meal. You can then go a few blocks up the street to the Blue Moon Saloon for happy hour from 5-7 PM.

Go there, get this amazing food, and you may feel like if you do this too often, a diet and exercise program will be in order.

You can come and do a Louisiana swamp tour with me in the morning, and see nature at it's best, and then just 15-20 minutes up the road, seafood for lunch at Taco Sisters.

Swamp People

2011-06-09T20:08:00.005-05:00

Hi, I am Marcus de la Houssaye,

owner and operator of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours at Lake Martin. I have lived on a houseboat in the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp from 1986 through 1995.

The three photos of me below, are copyrighted and are courtesy of Marc Garanger April, 1989

When I first built my houseboat in 1986,

and moved to the Atchafalaya swamp as a permament resident, the old timers claimed I would be the last of the "permanent" residents.

I really didn't understand what they meant by that, at the time, but it was true.

To live without electricity, television,

and having a boat as a main mode of transportation is as rare today, as it was 25 years ago when I first moved into the Basin. Frankly, I am amazed that more people can't disconnect from the mainstream modern lifestyle, and just do it.

What has happened for most of us, appears to be a matter of convienence. We have children who need to be in school 5 days a week, and we have jobs, to pay for our nice car and truck and our mortgage, insurance, internet, cell phone, etc.

But how can we be free, to live off the land and hunt and fish as a true Cajun, if we are so obligated to so many costly things? Well, the answer to that question is: we compromise and live a modern life with a road or street in front of our hiuse with electricity, internet, running water, etc. for five days a week, and on the weekends we haul our boat over the levee

on a boat trailer behind a pickup, and launch into the Basin for the weekend getaway.

It is practical, but still I am amazed that no one seems to be completely commited to living in the wilderness.

I met Greg Guirard on a movie location, a couple of weeks ago and asked him if there was anyone living in the Basin as a permanent resident.

He said "No, you were the last one".

He then went on and expressed concern that we as Cajuns are losing our identity, because we are allowing outside TV and film productions to focus on a small facet of our culture and that causes people on the outside to assume that we all live in housboats, or in houses on stilts,

and we all are swamp people.

Furthermore he pointed out that too many Cajun people are sucking up to and catering to tourists expectations of what is Cajun, such as spicy food, and alligators being consumers of humans. Then he really pushed it and said that too many tour guides were pretnding to be Cajun just to make a buck!

Today, with the Swamp People TV program being so popular, we are concerned that outsiders will assume that what they are seeing is representative of the Cajun culture as a whole. Well that is part of it, and those guys are for real, but they are not common per se.

If you would like to do a genuine Louisiana Swamp Tour, call the number above or click on the link in this line and I will do my best to share a couple of hours of culture, history, geography, and nature study, and I just might share some of my Cajun humor and talk like dat for you!

Just As I Predicted...

2011-05-23T21:35:00.004-05:00

We are not getting flooded where I do my swamp tours, in fact the water is low as you can see below,

nor is my home threatened by flood, but for the last few weeks, everyone who calls me about doing a swamp tour asks if I am still in business.

Now I understand how the news media likes to show the worst case scenario, and that may appear to some people, to be representative of the big picture. It is not in this case representative of the big picture, we will not have wide spread flooding occurring here in south Louisiana.

You can call me at 337 298 2630 to make a reservation for my swamp tours if you like. I am open for business!

Just like after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and all the national media focus caused people to assume ALL of south Louisiana was flooded(when it wasn't), this flood of 2011 and the similar subsequent misleading media coverage is causing people to doubt coming to Cajun Country, and some are actually changing travel plans and avoiding south Louisiana, just to be safe.

And that is too bad, because we are gonna miss you, and you are gonna have to watch "Swamp People" on TV and wonder if we are for real.

Even if the towns of Butte la Rose, Melville, and Krotz Springs,(which are "in" the spillway)are flooded, the place where I do my swamp tours(which is NOT in the spillway),will not flood, nor will the restaurants, dance hall honky tonks, and about 99% of southwest Louisiana flood, because we are protected by very large and well designed, well maintained and functional levees to our east.

As you can see in the photo below the levee keeps the water contained in a wilderness area near town, but the "protected" areas are no where near threatened here in south Louisiana like they are in Tennesse and Mississippi.

We are better prepared to deal with the Mississippi River flood waters of 2011 here in Cajun Country than our neighbors are in the north.

For one, our system here is designed for the worst case scenario, and this is not it. The mandatory evacuation of Butte la Rose has been lifted temporarily, and then put back in place as of today. And what that means is, people were being allowed to go back home and move a few more things out, and are being forewarned to be on guard, because this is not over. The water will most likely not get as high as predicted, but it is coming, even if it is coming slower than predicted.

So, we(on the west side of the levee), have not, and are not now and most likely will not flood, in the future, at least not this year.

If you want to see some images of the flooding here is a website with great photos, but that ain't us, we are safe behind protection levees.

Louisiana Flood 2011

2011-05-18T11:10:00.007-05:00

As of today, it appears that 17 of 125 gates have been opened on the Morganza Spillway. And it appears that opening the Morganza has helped absorb the rising floodwaters, and stoppd the Mississippi River from rising.

That being said, unless we have a lot of rain in the north and a whole lot more snow melt coming, no one should flood except some houses in the Atchafalaya Spillway.

And that means de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours will not be severely impacted by the flood unless you are NOT coming here to do swamp tours because you think we are out of business.

Actually Lake Martin is not in the spillway and is thus,

protected by the levees on the west side of the Atchafalaya Basin. And think about it: it is a swamp tour, it goes up and down with the water. The positive side of the high floodwaters in the basin is crawfish, and you can read the last post to get more info on that.

The Bonnet Carey spillway rushes into Lake Pontchartrain, as seen from a car on Interstate 10.

The levee protection system in place is doing it's job and containing the flood waters inside the levees along the Mississippi River, and the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp as seen below.

As you can see in the photo above most people live on the outside of the spillway and are thus protected by the levee system designed to keep floodwaters in a contained area.

The dire predictions of wide spread flooding "in" the spillway were perhaps relevant at the time, prior to opening the Morganza

and Bonnet Carey Spillways,

but now that those distribution outlets are doing their job,

the Mississippi River appears to have crested at New Orleans and Baton Rouge as seen below. "Crested" means it is no longer rising.

So, fortunately, the people of Swaze Lake, Krotz Springs, Melville, Bayou Catabla,

and Butte la Rose,

are breathing a sigh of relief. But, they should not let their guard down, because the Morganza is being opened, just a lot slower than we were led to believe.

But, the water is coming, and slowly being absorbed by the area, and not only allowing residents more time, it allows wildlife time to evacuate as well.

The floodwaters are being contained in the spillway and due to drought, the dry earth is absorbing a lot of the flood water in the Morganza area.

The present emergency situation erupted in Louisiana last week when the levees were breached at Lake Providence, La. and farmland began to flood as seen above.

Although some of the wildlife impacted by this flood are ideally adapted to the situation such as the alligator above, other species are imperilled if they can't get to dry land to rest, such as the exhuasted whitetail deer below being rescued by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries personel during the flood of 1973.

Louisiana Swamp Tours, Crawfish, and the Mississippi River Flood Of 2011

2011-05-10T19:47:00.006-05:00

Although the media paints a gloomy forecast for south Louisiana regarding the pending floodwaters due to crest here in about a week or two, I am here to tell you "the rest of the story".

Because of levees that now "protect" the delta from flooding, we are losing 30-50 square miles of marshland in coastal Louisiana every year, due to salt water intrusion. And salt water intrusion is the result of not enough Mississippi River floodwater being distributed across the vast plain of the delta, to dilute and push back the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico.

For milliniums, Mississippi River floodwaters distributed silt across the vast plain of the delta, and slowly the land we stand on today in south Louisiana evolved into the richest pantry of wild foods in North America. Then in the twentieth century, we decided to stop the natural flooding of the delta every year during springtime snowmelt, and we built huge levees to accomplish that.

That same land today, is no longer allowed to flood in order to successfully cultivate cash crops year after year, such as sugar cane, cotton, wheat, milo, corn and rice. Never is the floodwaters allowed to nourish the delta west of the spillway. The management of containment flood control currently ignores, and overlooks the ecological devastation of the coastal prairies, swamp, marshland, and barrier islands due to present flood control policies interference of natural floodwater distribution in the Mississippi River Delta.

Now, I am not against flood control or levees, I am opposed to the ultimate goal of containing floods, rather than a controlled distribution. We need the levees for containment during floods like what is coming now, and in addition to that, we need spillway outlets on the west protection levee feeding the major bayous and allowing them to what they have done for milleniums: distribute floodwaters . The irony of an annual floodwater distribution is we would not only have better flood protection during major floods which are rare, we would also be effectively fighting coastal erosion year round, year after year. And that is the battle we are currently losing.

A purple sunrise courtesy of Claude Nall

The geography of south Louisiana is flat, and often hard to determine where land ends and water begins, and vice versa.

The Bonnet Carey Spillway being opened on May 9, 2011

For your information, Lake Martin, where I launch my swamp tours, is not in the Morganza spillway that is about to flood. There are people living in there who will be homless in about a week or two, and we will need to shelter and feed some of these folks for a while. They are living in my opinion, on the wrong side of the levee. I have several friends who are in the process of relocating now.

The point I want to make here is: my swamp tours are NOT in harms way. Lake Martin and the Cypress Island Swamp are "protected" by flood control levees and de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours is still in business, and will not be adversely affected by the flood water rising to the east in the Atchafalaya Spillway. The cities of Opelousas, Lafayette, New Iberia, Franklin and Morgan City are well protected. Although Morgan City is most likely sweating butter beans about now.

After 25 years of doing my Louisiana swamp tours, I have been able to share the things about the Louisiana wetlands that I love with many people who truly appreciated them.

Prothonatary Warbler courtesy of Randy Mehoves

Interesting to note, that becoming a tour guide and operating de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours,

Your swamp tour guide circa 1989,
photo courtesy of Marc Garanger

has caused me to learn a great deal more about the wilderness wetlands that I have been a part of all my life, than I would have known, if I were not a tour guide.

Because I lived on a houseboat in the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp for 10 years,

and at the same time was doing educational swamp tours in the Atchafalaya spillway, I studied the hydralogy of the swamp basin present and past. That experience and the knowledge gained has enabled me to understand and oversee an extremely complicated flood control system, which is as an engineering feat, impressive, but operates contrary to nature.

The natural means of water management in the Mississippi River Delta is distribution through bayous and "allow" floodwaters to spread out over 200 miles of floodplain. The Corp of Engineers plan of managing big floods is containment in a 20 mile wide corridor called The Atchafalaya Basin Spillway. The sole purpose of containing floods in the spillway is to protect the other 80% of the floodplain outside the spillway.

Roughly a million acres in size. The entire spillway will flood this month and all minor spillways in the Atchafalaya basin spillway complex will be opened to allow a controlled distribution. The purpose of opening spillways and allowing a greater distribution is to prevent the floodwaters from going "over" the levee and washing it away. That would be our worst nightmare, and unlikely to happen this month, for the simple fact that we are experiencing a drought.

The problem with the current flood control system is that there is not enough distribution outlets to be really effective in major floods like what is bearing down upon us this month. The mindset of the Corp of Engineers has always been an unnatural goal of containment, rather than a natural gravitational distribution of flood waters, which is what nature would be doing if we were doing nothing.

So... if you are thinking of coming to Cajun Country and are worried that we are or will be under water soon, I want you to know that I have faith that the levee protection system we have in place here in south Louisiana, will protect us and deal with this present flood. My ever present concern is for the environmental impact of preventing distribution year after year, even when we have no major flood, and as a result suffer coastal erosion.

Please do not assume the failed levee system in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina is representative of our levee system here in Cajun Country.

I do believe we can handle this flood with the levee protection system we have in place, and we could have more flood protection if we "allowed" a larger controlled distribution because we would be able to handle an even worse flood than what is coming this month. And, on that note, may I say, this years flood is not even close, in my opinion, to becoming our worst nightmare.

So...here is the rest of the story:

The positve side of this flood is crawfish!

Lots of crawfish...

And...the best crawfish are deepwater crawfish, and my point being we have not had a good season like this in a long time, y'all come get ya some!

So if the positve side of this flood is crawfish, don't feel sorry for us,

we are here in our backyards boiling crawfish and having a good time!

And if you are just passing through, and don't have an invitation to someone's backyard,

The Tiger Palace at Doucet and Rees Street in Breaux Bridge has all you can eat buffet including boiled crawfish.

My favorite is the coconut shrimp. Just trust me on this one! Shrimp baked in coconut milk and sprikled with shredded coconut.

A great Chinese buffet...

A super salad and fruit bar,

and all you can eat crawfish with corn and potatoes!

Why would you want to eat anywhere else?

Well, if you wanted to sit and eat under the trees at a picnic table in the open air.

And so... one more reference for boiled crawfish in Breaux Bridge is Foti's Market and Cafe.

In Breaux Bridge, at the intersection of La.Hwy.31 and La.Hwy.94

Also known as The Fruit Stand

You can get boiled crab, shrimp and crawfish to go or sit and eat in the cafe.

Now you could get your crawfish to go and find a picnic table at the parc and sit under the trees like we do in our backyard or better yet just a half block from the The Fruit Stand is the Bayou Cabins on Hwy 94 at the Bayou Teche.

Come on in, grab yo self a chair and make yo self at home!

Watch the squirrels play, and relax. Doesn't matter if they are closed,
the Bayou Boudin and Cracklin Company and Bayou Cabins,

is a good place to set a spell, hang out and meet and get to know some folks.
And they don't care if you bought your crawfish next door, and came to eat here.

Go ahead and grab a picnic table, and enjoy the shade, there is plenty of parking,

a real friendly atmosphere,

and a playground for the kids.

So if they were closed, when you came by and you couldn't spend any money on the world's best boudin, know that you are welcome, just relax, get a feel for the place, and you might come back another time, spend a few days in a cabin, and have Rocky and Lisa cook breakfast for you in the morning. It is that kind of place where people care more about people than money.

Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival 2011

2011-05-05T10:51:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Breaux Bridge, Louisiana!

It is crawfish season, and this is Crawfish Festival Weekend

At the corner of Rees and Doucet Streets in Breaux Bridge is Parc Hardy, the home of the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival. and it happens on the first Saturday of May every year.

At the same corner is the Tiger Palace, and the coconut shrimp is available year round every evening.

OK, down to business...I took three days off last weekend for Festival International in Lafayette, so this weekend, I will be doing some Louisiana swamp tours from Lake Martin Landing which is about 3 1/2 miles south of the festival.

As usual, tours are by reservation only, and I will be starting early like at 7 or 8 AM. Please call in advance for tour times and to determine if seating is available.

You can call me at 337 298 2630 to make reservations for a Breaux Bridge Swamp Tour if you can tear yourself away from the festivities in Breaux Bridge.

I had the pleasure of running into my good friend Claude Nall, and was able to turn the camera on him for a change.

From the vantage of his kayak, Claude has captured the spirit of Lake Martin in his photography.

And here is Valyrie, who makes ugly, mean faces at me if I don't take her everywhere I go. She is a 4 1/2 month old de la Houssaye's Catahoula.

Truths, Myths, And Laws Regarding Alligators

2011-04-25T19:57:00.005-05:00

By law, in Louisiana, any aggressive alligator that "causes" an aggressive alligator complaint, must be removed(killed).

BTW, it is now illegal to feed alligators in Louisiana.

A fed gator is a dead gator, because feeding alligators causes them to lose their natural fear of man, and then they are often thought to be aggressive when approaching someone who does not know they only want to to be fed.

Also if an alligator is falsely accused, or thought to be, or mistaken for, "being aggressive",

and reported to the Louisiana Department Of Wildlife and Fishries, it is not investigated, and it might also be killed by the morons who are paid with taxpayer dollars "to protect the public" and destroy the natural beauty and wonder in My Wild Louisiana!

I am getting pissed off at the morons who think they are doing a good thing to report a "bad" alligator, and cause the demise of these wonderful creatures who are as maligned and feared as wolves.

I am Marcus de la Houssaye, owner and operator of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours, and I can be rached at 337 298 2630 if you would like to make a reservation to do an alligator swamp tour with me at Lake Martin.

Springtime Is Green Time

2011-04-10T14:11:00.004-05:00

My Louisiana swamp tours are in the largest rookery of wading birds in North America. The Yellow Crowned Night Heron seen below was photographed in a grove of Bald Cypress on the northwest side of the lake.

In a matter of days her chicks should be hatching and we will see their little Rod Stewart haircuts popping up over the rim of the nest. Just like the nesting season, timing is everything when it comes to the Purple Irises as seen below.

A Great Egret above and below.

A Black Crowned Night Heron above and below.

Below is a woodpecker in flight, look closely....

and here is another one in the center of the image, tree to the left.

and this is cocodrie!-)

Have you ever wondered why an alligator is always smiling?

You can call me to make a reservation for a Louisiana swamp tour at 337 298 2630

Spring Is A Wonderful Time In Louisiana

2011-03-31T19:44:00.008-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, the swamp was still mostly grey with moss being the predominant color factor.

And the White Ibis were really coming into the rookery to roost at sunset.

If you would like to view them,

you can go to Lake Martin Landing just before sunset any day,

and there are 20-30 thousand flying over the landing from the north to roost.

What is really interesting is how evident the floating mat of plants is as a foundation of the nesting birds food supply,

(as seen below, where Ibis are feeding on aquatic snails, shrimp and crawfish)

yet the Nature Conservancy continues to support the policy of spraying herbicide to decrease the plant mass.

Hopefully the emerald green that is emerging now will be here for our appreciation of the natural beauty of the swamp, as well as the nutrient value it brings to the ecology of all species, especially the birds, throughout spring and into the summer.

My Louisiana swamp tours have been a great source of inspiration and pleasure for many people for over 25 years and

in spite of 15 years of plant control, 5 major hurricanes in five years and an oil spill last year,

it would appar that the birds are back in record numbers and I will be here to watch over and defend the ecology and all species therein, as I conduct my tours. What has made my swamp tours special amoungst the 50 or so such companies in Louisiana is Lake Martin. de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours is still the premiere tourist attraction in the tri-parish area primarily due to the abundance and variety of plants, birds and alligators present in Lake Martin.

If you would like to come out and see the birds and alligators from Rookery Road(no charge), you can go to my site for directions, by clicking the link at the bottom of my new Lake Martin Swamp Tours site.

Or you can make a reservation for a Louisiana swamp tour with me by calling my cell phone @ 337 298 2630.

If you are out at the lake touring, hiking, kayaking, birdwatching or doing photography, and begin to feel the hunger pains, I want to refer you to a really neat little restaurant on the main drag from Interstate 10 leading into Breaux Bridge at 124 Rees Street.

It is called Le Cafe.

Now I can imagine you may have been eating too much fried food lately, but if that is what you are looking for, these folks do it right.

Just my opinion, but this is the place for shrimp poboy in Breaux Bridge!

You can call them at 332 2500 and order in advance and pick it up at the drive through. Nice...

As you can see, there is a lot more to the menu than just shrimp.

This is not a fast food restaurant, so call in advance if you are in a rush or be prepared to sit and wait for them to cook your order, and that is what makes it so good.

Along with the fact that it is cooked to order, they bread their own and that is how it is supposed to be done.

They are located at the corner of Rees and Thibodeaux streets in Breaux Bridge.

It Is Official, It's Springtime!

2011-03-23T03:59:00.004-05:00

And de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours has been booked solid for weeks past and I am presently making reservations as far in advance as June.

As of March 20, 7:21 P.M. EDT spring is on the calendar.

Signs of spring are everywhere, such as the leaves of the Bald Cypress trees are refoliating. These conifers who have been bare of leaves and gray with Spanish Moss all winter, are now turning emerald green as seen below.

And for weeks now the White Ibis have been flying into the rookery to roost every evening.

If you would like to experience the daily flyover at Lake Martin Landing

it occurs right before the sunset,

and I would guess we have 15-20 thousand White Ibis presently roosting in the rookery at Lake Martin.

I have not seen this many White Ibis since around Y2K

If you would like directions to Lake Martin Landing, this link will take you to my main site with address, GPS coordinates and written directions from Interstate 10.

The four photos below are courtesy of my good friend Claude Nall.

I have been seeing flocks of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks and this seems really early, but hey, I am not complaining. The last half of winter this year has been spring like almost every day.

Of course the Great Egrets are the dominant species for the moment,

and soon the smaller members of the Heron family will be arriving by the thousands

to fill out the rookery in all of its splendor next month and into May.

If you would like to join me for swamp tour, you can visit my new website at www.lafayetteswamptours.com for information on making reservations and check out the links to my favorite blog posts of the past.

Just in case you don't want to leave this page for more info, you can call my cell phone at 337 298 2630 and I would be glad to talk to you.

I am Marcus de la Houssaye, le maitre'd du bayou!

Isn't spring time wonderful in Louisiana?

Louisiana Swamp Tour Birds Can't Wait For Spring

2011-02-23T09:10:00.004-06:00

My Louisiana swamp tours first objective is to bring tourists up close to wildlife and at the same time, have given me a unique opportunity to study and observe the transitions in bird activities in and around the rookery.

The Great Blue Herons were right on schedule this year and started nesting in mid January.

The two photos above were taken on tour this past week.

Usually, the Great Egrets are right there with them.

But, even though mating plumes are visible through most of the winter,

it is the middle of January before
Great Egrets are usually feeling the natural urge to gather twigs,

build nests, and the mating plumes really start to come out.

But, this year, the Great Egrets are a month behind schedule.

The above photo of a new nest, was taken from Rookery Road on 2/22/2011

Meanwhile, back at the lake,

another bird who doesn't begin nesting until June,

All photos above(except the first two) are courtesy of Claude Nall.

with a beak specially designed to feed on invertebrae that live in the floating mat of plants,

is busy in a different way.

The White Ibis are gathering upon the floating mats of plants on the southwest corner of Lake Martin,

and feeding upon the snails, crawfish, and shrimp.

Above photo courtesy of Claude Nall

The swamp in winter is mostly grey with moss, then new things begin to move,

The photo above and below are courtesy of Claude Nall

and presents the anticipation of spring.

At the same time we have a very hard winter, I have noticed something I never saw before at this time of year.

Black-bellied whistling ducks

The nutria are safe for a few more weeks

Then the young gators which are already coming out into the 70' temperatures we are presntly having,

The photo above and below are courtesy of Claude Nall

will be joined by the big gators and no one will be safe!

If you would like to join me for a photo safari, bird watching, or a swamp tour, you can call me at 337 298 2639 for resrvations or visit my website for more info at www.delahoussayes.com.

Babette's Art Photography

2011-02-11T01:16:00.004-06:00

My friend Babette Romero sent these photos of the swamp as seen from Rookery Road

Classic simplicity

While the first three photos are not my favorites(just kidding Babette!)

The last three have jumped out at me;

All photos are by Babette Dartez Romero and are copyrighted.

If you violate this copyright,
you will be dealing with the woman in the photo below:

Thank you Babette

How Did This Happen?

2010-12-26T00:49:00.020-06:00

A pair of Great Egrets in courtship and building the nest in the rookery
at Lake Martin.(This begins in mid January)

In my younger days

photo by Marc Garanger copyrighted 1986

and wildest imaginations,

I never aspired to become or imagined myself as a Louisiana swamp tour guide.

photo by Martin Blake

But, I have always been a wild man, so...

An archive photo circa 1991

I feel privileged to be the guide and bridge that allows so many people from all around the world to enter into the forbidden, and often hard to reach world where water and land are so interwoven it is hard to tell where one starts and the other finishes.

So I try to glide gently through the trees,

so that the sounds I make, blend into the rustle of the cypress and tupelo.

My father taught me how to swim on land,

careful as a turtle.

When I am guiding a Louisiana swamp tour, I am on land that is flooded.

The fact the trees are growing in the water is proof that this was once dry land in the past,

because seeds will not sprout and grow under water.

He taught me to love the shape of boats,

An archival photo by Tanya Landtmeters circa 2000

and the smell of pure air in the morning.

"You'll see more if you're quiet", he told me.

"Things don't hide

or wait for you to pass.

And, it is more polite,

so they don't leave when you get too close".

When I first started doing swamp tours 25 years ago,

An archive photo by Henri Cancienne

I was a crawfisherman,

and I took people to the places that I knew as a fisherman.

Gradually so many people came to my Louisiana swamp tours,

I phased out the fishing and became a full time tour guide,

but I am still traveling the swamp the same way I did when I fished.

I have learned to develop close personal relations of mutual respect with the wildlife.

that allows me to get very close without disturbing their natural behavior.

As I approach a bird for instance,

I can tell by the birds body language when it is about to fly.

If I stop and respect the birds personal space before it flies,

the bird learns to eventually tolerate a boat full of tourists pointing cameras and binoculars in very close proximity.

Gradually over the course of time,

the bird allows me to get even closer and closer without flying away.

Such is the art of guiding an ecotour

and putting my guests in very close positions to wildlife
and making comments such as: "Look there is an alligator eating a snake!

Oh, I feel like I am in a National Geographic program!"

All photos are courtesy of Claude Nall,

(except for 5 from my archives, as noted)

are copyrighted, and all were shot at Lake Martin

where I do my Louisiana swamp tours.

If you would like to join me as I explore the wilderness of the Cypress Island Swamp, you can make reservations and get directions by calling my cell phone at 337 298 2630. Tours are by reservation only, so please do not go looking for me without calling first.

BTW ~

if you try to find my address on the Internet without calling for directions,
910 Wilderness Trail is my personal residence, and it is the mailing address of the office for de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours, 12 miles from the the boat landing where the tours depart!

And I thought computers were supposed to make life simpler for us?

The actual physical address for the tour is:

Lake Martin Landing
1321 Rookery Rd.
Breaux Bridge, La. 70517

And hey, I know you snow birds are flocking to the Gulf coast. Can't say I blame you, but it is deer and duck hunting season here now so guess where I am most of the time! I am tracking lost and wounded deer with my Louisiana Catahoulas.

Please call to make reservation, because I am not at the boat landing much this time of year.

Food, Music And Swamp Tours

2010-11-29T08:57:00.020-06:00

A few years ago, the Louisiana Office of Tourism conducted a survey at the welcome centers and asked people entering Louisiana what were the top three things that they came to Louisiana to do, and the answers are in this posts title.

Sushi at Tsunami

Smoked Salmon and trimmings at The First Annual Alaska/Louisiana
After Black Pot Festival Party and Feast

The Figs performing on the back porch

Cedric Watson at Festivals Acadiens et Creole

Sunset at Lake Martin

A rainbow over de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours.

The Food.

With over 300 restarants in the city of Lafayette alone, finding a good restaurant is not a problem. Deciding which one, is! Undoubtedly some of the best restaurants are often the hard to find, little mom and pop version, like T-Coon's, Chicken on the Bayou, and The Creole Lunch House. Further complicating the issue is scheduling.

Creole Lunch House is open 5 days a week, lunch only from 11AM-2:30PM

~ LIKE EATING AT GRANDMA'S HOUSE!
337 232 9929,@12th and St. Charles in Lafayette.

Planning on a early morning and want a home-cooked breakfast?

T-Coons is open for breakfast at 6AM

and lunch 7 days a week, 6AM-2PM ~ SMOUTHERED RABBIT IS MONDAY FOR LUNCH Ohhhh! @1900-A Pinhook at the intersection of Kaliste Saloom Rd in Lafayette!

About 10 miles east of Lafayette on I-10, Chicken on the Bayou is open for breakfast, lunch, and supper, 7 days a week,

but like most restaurants in the Lafayette area, it closes early.

So get your order in before 8:30PM, because they are closed at 9PM. And be forewarned: if you try to stay after 9PM, you will be politely asked to leave. Chicken on the Bayou is on I-10 at exit 115 Henderson. Get there early and order the #10 on the menu; Crawfish ettoufee with fried shrimp, you will be glad you did. Not that hungry, but the shrimp sounds good, try the poboy.

The Music

Aside from special occasions like festivals,

most of your dance and music options are primarily on the weekends,

but...

If you want live Cajun music with your food, 7 nights a week, at Prejeans, you can hear traditional Cajun music performed while you eat from 7-9PM. Award winning cuisine, great atmosphere decorated with wild life mounts of local fish and birds, and the centerpiece of the restarant is this 14 foot alligator, as seen below.

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week,
Prejeans is always open,
but the music is only at night from 7-9PM.

A great family restaurant.

My personal vote for #1 Cajun restaurant in Lafayette.

On I-49, three miles north of I-10 @ 3480 N.E. Evangeline Thruway, 896-3247.

Being labeled as the best music offered between Austin, TX and New Orleans,

The Blue Moon Saloon, is my favorite dancehall.

The Blue Moon Saloon is on the back porch of the Blue Moon Guesthouse, so you can spend the night in the guesthouse and not have to drive home after the show, and..

best part about the back porch is it is well ventilated;

I hate second hand smoke!

worst part is it is always hot in the summer and sometimes cold in winter, although the patio heaters work real well, if you stand close enough.

With great jam sessions on Wednesday night, often led by living legends like Mr. Goldman Thibodeaux as seen above,

and live music every Thur-Sat, with great bands like The Lil Band Of Gold, as seen above,

and quite often late Sunday afternoon shows, like last night as seen above, with The Radiators, out of New Orleans, The Blue Moon, is the most reliable good dance music after the local restaurants in Lafayette and Breaux Bridge.

Swamp Tours

According to my daughter Christina, and she should know,

having been on thousands of my swamp tours,

I am the worlds greatest swamp tour guide,

now if you think I am all puffed up on myself, relax it is a joke!
And an inside joke because there is someone who wants to be like me and that is what he is telling everyone. ~:-)

and should you want to join me,

for a Louisiana swamp tour,

please call for reservations @ 337 298 2630.

In The Autumn Transition

2010-11-12T16:04:00.010-06:00

The Woodducks are as brilliant as ever.

With cooler temperatures and drier air I am now returning to a full time schedule, where we can do tours every day, all day. Because of oppresive heat and humidity, my summertime schedule allowed swamp tours at sunrise and sunset only.

If you are interested in joining me for a Louisiana Swamp Tour, you can call my cell phone at 337 298 2630 to make a reservation.

Now, just because we can do tours all day, doesn't mean I am there waiting for you everyday. If you do not make a reservation before going to Lake Martin, you may be wasting your time.

It could be that the boat is already full of passengers, or we just left and the next tour is two hours later, not to mention, I could be fishing in the Gulf, and...

Hey, it is Whitetailed Deer hunting season, need I say more?

Please call 337 298 2630 for reservations.

The swimming woodduck suddenly explodes into flight.

The neo-tropical cormorants are back.

And because the lake is full of baby shad,

the Great Egrets are fattening up for winter.

The Little Green Herons are headed south and disappearing until April...

and The Great Egrets will be nesting in about 2 months.

Let me not forget to mention, the moorhens came in with the cormorants.
A.K.A. Poule d'eau (in Cajun that is pronouned "Pull Do")

With the decreasing temperatures and increasing wind, the birds are starting to hunker down in protected areas,

All photos above are copyrighted and courtesy of Claude Nall.

The American Lotus are starting to sink, and the Bald Cypress trees are well defoliated giving the swamp a decisive look of grey for the next 5 months.

The Bald Eagles are patrolling the lake daily, and with duck season openning tomorrow, the eagles will have plenty of lost ducks to bring to the nest.

I can't remember seeing this many cormarants in about 10 years...

In the air, in the trees, and in the water, the cormorants are everywhere.

The once dark winding corridors through virgin cypress, are now being illuminated, as the canopy falls away.

Although fall and winter can be dreary at times, this fall has been superb weather wise.

With Bluebird skies and natural air conditioning, who could ask for more?

Well more wind is what we got and with Spanish Moss whipping around and whitecaps on the lake,

it got a little dramatic at times.

I try to stay in the drama free zone as much as possible.

Claude Nall, A Friend Of Lake Martin

2010-10-29T14:38:00.010-05:00

My friend Claude Nall, has shared some amazing photography of Lake Martin, where I do my Louisiana swamp tours. I am posting his work here for your appreciation. If you would like to do a swamp tour with me at Lake Martin where these photos were taken, you can call me at 337 298 2630 for reservations. Please bear in mind; if you want me to do a swamp tour for you, you NEED a reservation because many people are driving there without a reservation and are unfortunately, usually disappointed.

I do not do tours everyday and there is no regular schedule.

BY RESERVATION ONLY!

All photos are copyright 2010 by Claude Nall.

Temperatures And Leaves Are Falling

2010-09-27T21:49:00.008-05:00

With the morning temps around 60' Farenheit and leaves falling from the trees, the autumn equinox is in full force, and it is once again practical to do a de la Houssaye's Swamp Tour during the mid-day.

It has been a very sweet summer for me personally and a pleasure to share with so many visiting guests from all around the world.

Soon the summer foliage such as American Lotus below,

and the blooms of the Arrowhead will be a memory.

But looking ahead, the dogs are already frisky in anticipation of the hunting season now upon us.

Bobbi Girl, a grandaughter of Bobalou and Two Diamonds Cutter.

If you would like to do a swamp tour, you can call me on my cell phone to make reservations at 337 298 2630.

I hope the cooler water temperatures help my fishing buddies bring something home to brag about.

Another buddy of mine at Lake Martin has just remodeled and opened up the newest accomodations option in the Lake Martin area.

The Cottage at Lake Martin

With a very nice patio in the back, walking distance to the rookery, and walled in by bamboo, it is an amazing outdoor retreat from urbania.

Should you want to sleep in and do brunch,

this one bedroom, with private bath and kitchen is a romantics dream come true!

Lush bottomland hardwood forest on two sides and bamboo and palms throughout, this cozy weekend getaway is often serenaded by songbirds year round.

Please be advised if you want to do a tour on October 8,9,or 10, I will be enjoying the festivities at Giraurd Park in Lafayette. We are celebrating the food, music, dance and culture of the Cajuns and Creoles at Festivals Acadiens et Creole. Starting with Downtown Alive on Friday afternoon, and at the park on Saturday and Sunday.

Cedric Watson and Bijeaux Creole

I will be doing a sunrise Louisiana Swamp Tour on Friday and Saturday during the festival, but that is your only options to tour with me during the festival.

Put on your sun hat and lets go kick up some dust!

An Autumn Trend

2010-09-20T19:41:00.005-05:00

de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours

The trees are turning colors,

there is cool air in the morning and the days are getting shorter.

We are just days away from the official start of Autumn.

I will miss the flowers of summer. And Oh, what a great summer it has been!

I won't miss the spiders.

Did a couple of private tours over the weekend.
One with a couple from Australia,

and another with two guys from the Disney movie up the road.

We had a great time on the tour with a group of Indian students at UL of Lafayette,

And Bubbles(who survived the alligator attack) is just getting over the limp, and back to touring again!

If you would like to join me on a de la Houssaye's Swamp Tour, you can call me at 337 298 2630.

This is Wild!

2010-09-19T01:38:00.001-05:00

The Birds Of Lake Martin

2010-09-14T21:54:00.005-05:00

I have been operating de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours at Lake Martin for over 20 years. And I have been here full time now, for over 14 years.

Rosette Spoonbills

In spite of the BP oil spill, and the ecological disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico and the south eastern corner of the state of Louisiana,

Great Blue Heron

Lake Martin remains the most unpolluted lake in the state, because it does not have any agricultural runoff and it is too far inland to be impacted by the oil spill in the gulf.

Bald Eagle on the lookout over Lake Martin

And perhaps because of the oil spill, and thus people trying to avoid the dangers and depressive conditions in and around New Orleans, we have had more people coming to do swamp tours here this summer, and thus enjoying the birds of Lake Martin.

My friend Butch Guchereau

Louisiana Heron feeding in the floating mat of plants

I do not want to take undo credit, but isn't it interesting, that I write these scathing articles in the summer of 2009,

pointing to the corelation of lower water levels at Lake Martin and a decreased population of wading birds nesting in the rookery.

Then September 2009, for the first time in about 8 years, The Nature Conservancy does not pull the plug and drain the lake on schedule last fall, like it has since 2001,

and LO AND BEHOLD, spring 2010, we have more birds nesting than we had since Y2K.

Anhinga Cormorant

Furthermore, it is now, the middle of September, and thus the end of the growing season for plants,

and so far not once has the state Wildlife and Fisheries come out in a boat and sprayed herbicide to control plants around the lake and decrease and destroy the ecology and natural beauty of the area.

But they have come out this week and sprayed from Rookery Road as seen below!

Oh well, as I fight this battle against the war on plants, I count my victories where I find them.

Not only is an abundance of clean water important to the birds who nest at Lake Martin,

Little Blue Heron

but also equally important is the floating mats of plants to host the food supply that feeds the wading birds who nest here.

White Ibis coming in to roost at sunset

So far it has been a good year at Lake Martin.

All photos are copyrighted and courtesy of Claude Nall

If you would like to do a Louisiana Swamp Tour with me, Marcus de la Houssaye, I can be reached via my cell phone for reservations at: 337 298 2630

Natural Air Conditioning!

2010-09-06T07:54:00.008-05:00

The last two weeks have been so sweet because the morning temps started out at about 70 degrees every day. And yesterday it must have been in the upper sixties whan I walked out of my house at 6:30 AM to start my sunrise tour.

The couple I took out on the sunrise tour was from Portland Oregon who had heard about me from the New York Times article that featured de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours in the September 1st edition last week.

And as much as it was so nice to have only two people on a private tour, my boat has been mostly full for every tour, and this past weekend with the Labor Day holiday crowds, I turned away as many people, as I took out because people were calling last minute and my boat was full on every tour.

It was, with all the people, and the gator incident, quite an exciting weekend.

As owner and operator of de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours at Lake Martin, I am constantly warning people walking around the boat landing, with dogs running free, to be careful of the alligators.

I did the sunrise tour on Sunday morning with the couple from Portland, Oregon.

I had just finished my tour, my guests had pulled out of the boat landing, and I was telling a lady standing in the landing that she needed to be careful of her Yorkie around the gators.

As I was speaking of how we had 5 dogs we knew of last year that were eaten by gators in the boat landing, I look over and there is a 8-10 footer, zeroed-in on my puppy. At a distance of about 3 foot I knew the gator was in range and about to stike and instinctively I began to lunge in that direction. About halfway there, the gator struck and then a second later, I was on top of him. At that point he was more worried about me on him, than eating the puppy and let it go.

In the heat of the moment, I did not think, I acted, and had I not seen the gator, and moved when I did, there would have been nothing I could have done to save the puppy, because once a gator has someting in its jaws rarely does its prey survive.

I this case, in spite of having a good bite on the pups hind-end, I scared the gator enough, to cause him to lose hold, and do a 180 to get away from me and head back into the water, and I was then able to scoop the pup up and bring it to the boat trailer and make these photos.

This alligator was very bold in that it approached this puppy with about 5 people standing around talking, fortunately, I was only about 10 foot away from the incident when the gator struck. Typically, alligators are very shy around people because we eat them, they do not eat us, and we are their only natural enemy so they have nothing to fear except man.

The real root of the problem here is an over-zealous swamp tour guide has been feeding the alligators at Lake Martin now for about 10 years. And I will quote him here: "I fed every alligator, all the way around the lake."

Unfortunately, a fed gator is only relocated to the processing plant after it has been killed.

In spite of the dangers of gators, we regularly swim and kayak at Lake Martin, because typically they are very shy around humans.

Should you come to Lake Martin for a de la Housaye's Swamp Tour you are much safer here in my boat, than you are on the Interstate 10 in your car, but please be aware of your pets around any waterway in Louisiana, we have hungry gators and you never know if someone has fed it or not.

If you are interested in doing a tour, you can make reservations @ 337 298 2630

Oh, Sweet Summer Rains.....

2010-08-18T11:24:00.015-05:00

If you are planning a de la Houssaye's Swamp Tour this summer, consider sunrise as your best option to view alligators,

not to mention it is cool and you have the best light of the day photographically speaking.

But if it rains, and this time of the year that is typically between noon and 5 PM, afterwards, the swamp is energised and everything looks clean and crispy as the produce section at the super market.

It is better wet with rain, than sweat.

And always after a summer rain the ground fog hangs close to the water just like in winter, but it is far from cold and the trees are all green.

And how sweet it is, after such a long and intensely hot summer, to have a day like today, open up with sunshine in the treetops at sunrise,

and then with clouds rolling in soon after,

and almost completely blocking the sun all day. It is a much needed relief, and this is atypical, but we have been cooled off by a tropical disturbance these last few days. Thank God!

Not to complain about summer, because I love it, but the temps in the upper 90's now for about 3 months has caused me to do only sunrise and sunset tours for the most part, because my guests just can't take the heat, and the gators hide throughout the course of the day, being only visible at sunrise and sunset. I learned a long time ago, if I can't show you a gator on my tour, most people think it is not a good tour.

Lots of things come out in the heat of summer, like no other time of the year...

like this yellow swallowtail on a passion flower blossom

Butterflies are everywhere, like this one that landed on the rail of my boat,

and bumble bees gather nectar from the smallest blossoms...

to the largest most radiant, like this trumpet flower below.

A Fisher Spider walks on the water and then dives to catch shrimp and minnows.

An abundance of dragonflies eat all of the mosquitoes that would otherwise make the swamp unbearable in summer. So, you don't have to wear mosquito repellent, because there are no mosquitoes on the tour.

Another voracious consumer of insects is the Cricket Frog as seen below.

And of course, Purple Martins contribute to minimize the insect population in the summertime too.

The Redwing Blackbird is the last of the seasons nesting birds and it starts nests in June...

and then the eggs...

and the babies hatch out...

The cumulous clouds of summer are like hot air ballons...

And after you see the wonders of nature on my swamp tour, you might want seafood...

Of course if you are following my blog, you already know of the best crawfish ettoufee at The Chicken On The Bayou in Henderson at exit 115 off of Interstate 10.

If you go looking for it, stop at the building that says "The Boudin Shop" and you are there.

It's a little mom and pop restaurant, with all the typical tourist stop bells and whistles, but oh, is the food so good, and affordable compared to the tourist traps.

Here is crawfish ettoufe with fried shrimp, potato salad, and home-made bisquit for about $15

Or want to keep it light, the fried shrimp po-boy for about $8. I don't know where you are from, but I thank God everyday, that I was born Cajun and can eat like this anytime I want.

You can also get the fried alligator you have heard about, and no it doesn't taste like chicken, it tastes like tame rabbit, fried. I'm glad I clarified that that for most of you! I recommend you get the gator wings(front legs, like buffalo wings).

And please if you see alligators in the wild do not feed them it is illegal, and the signage below explains why.

The flowers of summer might be the Button Bush

and the American Lotus

Oh, isn't summertime wonderful?

You can even swim with the gators.

This is Lake Martin a couple of weeks ago, and every gator Benjamin approached was scared off. Yah, we bad, gators fear us and women love us. :-)

If you would like to contact me for a swamp tour, you can visit my main site, by clicking the link here or simply call 337 298 2630 for reservations. And on that note, I highly recommend you make reservations, because now that the well that caused the oil spill has been capped we are over run with tourists and a lot of people are driving up to the landing thinking they don't need a reservation and are very disappointed to see the boats going out full everytime and there is no room for anyone else to get on. Very important to make a reservation if you don't want to waste time waiting for the next tour to depart.

Sweet Summertime

2010-08-11T17:08:00.004-05:00

The weather is hot, and the water is fine, but the gators are hiding from the heat more than usual it seems.

Considering the tropical storm approaching, this is the calm before the storm, at least that is what the news media wants us to brace for.

Frankly, wind and rain sounds good to me.

With temps in the upper 90's and few clouds this week, Ben has the right idea to get the board out on the lake and terrorize the gators a bit.

This was not the most dramatic sunset, but it was so sweet to be there.

And here is another favorite Breaux Brige eatery I have never featured in the blog. Le Cafe is at 124 Rees Street and Thibodeaux, one block north of Bridge Street.

They have great fried shrimp poboys and all you can eat fish for 10.99 everyday. I don't like to promote the fried food places, but hey this one is as good as it gets.

To place an order for drive thru pick up call them at 332 2500

These two guys were sure proud of their catch and release Largemouth Bass, and when I tried to explain the release of flavor resulting from catch and fishfry a bass they didn't get it. Guess they never ate fried bass.

And these guys came from Texas last weekend and we had a hilarious time joking around and drinking cold beer in the heat of the afternoon. Funniest part was the blonde gal out drank the guys.

I tried to keep the boat moving as much as possible because that was the only breeze we had, and cold beer can only do so much to keep you cool when the temps are in the upper 90's.

One of the things I love about Texans is the tall tales, full of color and character, just add a few cold ones and the stories start to flow. We had some great laughs along the way!

Oh the sunsets have been so sweet lately

The Challenge

2010-07-27T21:21:00.007-05:00

Photo by Claude Nall

With so many views of what is going on in Louisiana right now with the oils spill it is difficult to know who to believe. Yet that is a challenge we must face everyday, on many fronts of the government, news media, education, religion, and business.

Photo by Claude Nall

I have always made my best effort to share the truth about things in the swamp, in my swamp tour presentations. I have a passion for the wildlife, culture, history, and environment of south Louisiana.

I will tell you things like; alligators don't eat us, we eat them, true!

Yet you can see my friend Simone, from Lafayette, is a little uncertain about getting so close to one on my tour.

It irks me that New Orleans tries to capitalize on it's close procximity to Cajun Country. But it is on the wrong side of the Mississippi River to be Cajun.

The media wrongly promotes our food as spicy, actually it is flavorful.

And BP would have you believe they have it under control and all is safe, when it is not, but luckily if you are aware of the geography and wanting to do a swamp tour you should now where I do my tours at Lake Martin, we are far inland and about 200 miles away from the toxic effects of the BP oil spill. Our seafood, so far is uncontaminated, and our wildlife is safe from harm.

A Bald Eagle in a tree watching over Lake Martin
Photo by Claude Nall

But one does have to consider if our life here in the heart of Cajun Country could in the future also be adversely affected by the oil like our neighbors to the east.

For now anyway the well is capped for the last few weeks, and nature will heal itself given time.

We still have the food, music, dance, and swamp tours Cajun Country is famous for.

A de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours in the bayou.

I can be reached at 337 298 2630 if you are interested in doing a tour with me.

Hero woos commission with soulful crooning

2010-07-14T07:58:00.001-05:00

A Lake Martin swamp sunset

Photo by Claude Nall

OK, I'll keep it short here because this blog was set up to help people coming to Louisiana find a good swamp tour in the Lafayette area. And if you scroll down to the next post you can see who I am, and what I have to offer you on my swamp tour.

But, I am a political person, and I couldn't resist sharing here as a Lafayette local says it all musically, in front of Obama's oil spill commission at the Hilton Hotel in New Orleans.

So what does this have to do with swamp tours? Katrina and the government/corporate bungling after it, hurt me and a lot of other small busineses in south Louisiana. I was out of business for three years because people just stopped coming to Louisiana.

The oil spill hasn't shut me down yet, as I am still doing my world famous swamp tours, but we are watching this oils spill situation closely.

In the end, hopefully we can use this oil spill, like Katrina,
to make Louisiana a better place for us to live and for you to visit.

Here is my friend, Drew Landry.

Enjoy

This You Tube video was pulled from a C-Span broadcast:

Louisiana Swamp Tour Sunrise

2010-07-11T23:01:00.012-05:00

For swamp tour reservations, you can call me at 337 298 2630

A de la Houssaye's Swamp Tour leaving Lake Martin Landing shortly after dawn...

Sunrise is the time to be at Lake Martin in the summertime.

Photo by Claude Nall

The fog hangs low in moss draped Bald Cypress and it is the coolest time of the day.

Birds are everywhere,

as the spoonbills leave the roost in search of breakfast,

Photo by Claude Nall

along with the Great Egret,

Photo by Claude Nall

and the Great Blue Heron,

It's yummi...sushi for breakfast,

Photo by Claude Nall

and also sunrise is the best time to see the most sought after sighting on a swamp tour; an American Alligator.

Photo by Claude Nall

The young birds who hatched in the rookery this past spring, are very vulnerable to alligators as they are getting out of the rookery and learning to feed themselves.

Photo by Claude Nall

this one of course must be wondering why we humans complicate things so with loud noisy motors, which seem to give us more sorrows than service at times...

Photo by Claude Nall

And if these young birds are not careful, they will help feed someone else,

Photo by Claude Nall

and apparently judging by the feather in his mouth, this one might already have had someone in his breakfast menu.

Photo by Claude Nall

Well, not long after passing by this Great Egret and was going into the woods nearby to finish his meal, he came out quicker than he went in...

Photo by Claude Nall

Apparently a larger, dominant alligator had plans of "stealing" his breakfast!

Photo by Claude Nall

Sunrise tours are doing really well this summer...

The flora of summertime is abundant...

and exquisite...

And we can run into some friends along the way,

Photo by Claude Nall

After a couple of hours it is back to Lake Martin landing for some fish tales

A nice catch of crappy, A.K.A. as "sac-a-lait" in Cajun.

Then as I am about to load up the boat on the trailer, a couple of Christian missionaries on their way to Mexico, calling last minute wanting to see some swamp..

So I said come on, I am at the landing and the boat is already in the water...

I don't advise you go to landing hoping to step onto a tour without calling and making a reservation first, because with the heat at 95 degrees + F, I am for the most part, only doing sunrise and sunset tours. I might be out in the boat on a sunset tour as seen below and actually be there, but not waiting for you at the landing. Also consider there is no storefront, receptionist, or restroooms at Lake Martin Landing, because it is a public wilderness boat landing. Your best approach to doing a swamp tour with me is to call first.

To make a reservation, you can call me at 337 298 2630,

and I will see you at the lake.

Photo by Claude Nall

Independence From British Control?

2010-07-03T22:55:00.007-05:00

It has been a good week at de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours, leading up to our 4th of July Independence Day Celebration.

I feel privledged to be an American and enjoy the rights of freedom which were bought and paid for with blood in our American Revolution against the British over two hundred years ago.

If you are wanting to do a swamp tour, I can be reached at 337 298 2630 for reservations. And my advise is you really should make a reservation before driving out to Lake Martin because I maybe fishing for redfish in the marsh for the next few days.

It is starting to look like the 1st amendment right of a free press is being suspended by our federal government who is in cahoots with a British corporation who is making the rules in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in order to cover up the negligence, and damage it is doing to our people, the wildlife, and our state wetlands environment.

Here is a You Tube audio tape of Billy Nungesser, the President of Plaquimines Parish discussing the Coast Guard enforcing a 60' rule made up by BP to cover up this mess and to keep the media far enough away from the oil spill and dying wildlife to do a fair job of reporting the incompetence and dysfunction of the people in charge of managing and cleaning up this man made disaster.

Billy is a for real, local boy who grew up in New Orleans and tells it like it is.

I believe the audio is self explanatory.

Happy Independence Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-twfQwTr6LE

Here is a link to a You Tube video of Anderson Cooper of CNN doing a story about the suspension of the first amendment right of a free press.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXsmLMV1CrM

Life Is Good

2010-06-22T09:26:00.007-05:00

de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours has been conducting tours into the largest rookery of wading birds in North America for over twenty years.

The birds are nesting at Lake Martin in record numbers this year and in spite of the oil spill media blitz, the tourists are coming too.

For now the birds that hatched in the rookery this spring are snow white, and leaving the nests, and learning to feed themselves on the floating cypress logs and mats of plants on the south side of Lake Martin as seen below.

It is hard for me to appreciate the pristine natural beauty as seen below and savor the abundance of wildlife we have at Lake Martin without flashing back to the images of the degrading environment and dead wildlife only a couple of hundred miles away in the hot zone surrounding the mouth of the Mississippi River near the oil, spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and polluting our coastal marshes.

The swamp where I do my tours is too far inland to ever be effected by the oil spill, and for now the marshland south of us is safe too, because the oil spill is moving east and away from us.

So...

Life is good, and if it weren't for the media, we here in Lafayette would have no idea how heartbreaking it is for the wildlife and people who inhabit the mouth of the Mississippi River a couple of hundred miles away. My heart goes out to them who are suffering the effects of pollution, corporate lying, and government incompetence in relation to the BP oil spill there.

And though I do not know anyone personally who perished in the fire on board the Deepwater Horizon, my condolences are felt for the loved ones left behind who were missing the eleven men who were not here for this past weekends Father's Day observances.

It is too soon to tell where this thing is going, but I have to wonder if the life I experienced growing up in the coastal south Louisiana in the latter half of the twentieth century will soon only be a memory and stories that I share with my grandchildren rather than an actual heritage that we pass on to the next generations.

The boat landing at Cypremort Point, north of Marsh Island wildlife refuge.

I have many fond memories of launching our boat in the glorious colors
of dawn as seen below.

Then experiencing the sunrise over the point before we cross Vermilion Bay as seen below.

And the anticipation of what will be the results of the first cast.

Then as our fun begins to turn into a fruitful harvest...

We cannot resist also catching some of our great Blue Point crabs to round our our day on the water in the coastal marshland where the Gulf seafood is so abundant.

For now, life is good here in the coastal areas of south central and western Louisiana, where I grew up eating fresh caught shrimp, crab and fish.

We have had the best crawfish season in the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp in over a decade, thanks to an abundance of snow melt coming down the Mississippi River.

And the tourists who are steering clear of New Orleans and the oily beaches east of there are finding the food, music, and swamp tours here in the Lafayette area are an easy alternative to the contaminated hot zones of the oil spill disaster a couple of hundred miles away to the east.

The boat loads of children out of school looking for adventure and an education in our wetlands here have been heartwarming.

Almost every morning, a sunrise tour leaves out as the fog hangs low and then the magnificent clouds of summer form in the late morning and a few thunderstorms pop off to cool us in the afternoon.

For now, life is good in Cajun Country and the swamp tours, food and music is still here for us to share when you come to visit.

The Oil Is Not Here, But The Economic Tsunami Is

2010-06-11T09:47:00.010-05:00

Lake Martin Landing is still beautiful,
but it is not the busy parking lot it normally is in the summertime.

Contrary to what the media may be leading you to believe, we in Lafayette, are not totally polluted, our seafood is not contaminated, and we are still in business, unless you guys stop coming to Louisiana for the food, music and swamp tours.

Although many of our visiting guests believe visiting Louisiana means New Orleans, one of the biggest benefits of the post-Katrina Louisiana is touristsand New orleans natives have discovered Lafayette as an improved alternative to the good times of "The Big Easy".

We have great restaurants, good music, and excellent swamp tours, just like the big city, but almost none of the negatives of the big city.

A few families are still coming out with the kids and experiencing our unsploiled natural beauty and anticipating some adventure as seen in this tour that went out yesterday.

The mouth of the Mississippi River and the oil spill, is about 200 miles away and that is a different story than here in Lafayette.

We are far enough away that our wildlife, seafood, and environment is not being directly impacted by the BP disaster.

Although it has been nice to see all the smiling faces and so few empty seats this spring, it is starting to look like the BP oil slick epicenter, is ceating an economic tsunami hundreds of miles away from the actual physical damage.

Although we are far from the polution and the dangers associated, we are experiencing an economic downturn as a result of people thinking we are polutted and in the hot zone.

Rather than a full boat and a couple of empty seats; it is starting to look like an empty boat for the most part and a couple of occupied seats.

And worse, I am getting cancellations on a regular basis.

It has been nice, to experience the sunsets and to see the birds return to the rookery, but it looks like I may be visiting Lake Martin in the near future, much less than I prefer, as people allow the negative media about the oil spill hundreds of miles away to keep them from the Lafayette area.

And just when we got a Lake Martin local resident at the lake to cook for us!

One of the locals and his wife, started coming out to the landing in the outdoor kitchen he built on a 16 foot utility trailer, and would feed us incredible Cajun dishes at the landing for free. I know if you are not from here it sounds wierd or suspicious, to be giving good food away for free. But it is southern hospitality, taken up a couple of notches, Cajun style.

Like when I went to Hawaii, before I got there, I had been warned to be careful of the locals. But when I got there, they took me into their home and fed me, and loved me, because I thankfully recieved their gracious hospitality. They took me in and treated me like family, because I was like them, and they knew I would have done the same for them if they came walking by one day.

Even the dogs were hanging around knowing that they would get some too!

Well it has been the best winter in decades, and a fine spring too...

But as great as it has been coming back after the hiatus of three years following Katrina and nobody coming for swamp tours, I assume I am already seeing the effect of the BP oil spill turning away tourists from Cajun Country just like Katrina did.

And just like Katrina did not affect Lafayette physically, the ecomomic tsunami of the oil spill reaches a lot farther than the physical damage does.

So if you were thinking of coming to Louisiana and were afraid that we are no longer a viable tourist destination, I understand. But we are presently too far from the spill to suffer chemical damage, so come get some of the good times in Cajun Country because who knows, maybe the oil will not be stopped and life in Louisiana as a whole will never be the same, but for now we are hanging on and hoping our government gets serious about our homeland security, because it looks like our real enemy is not in the Middle East, it is here and it's initials are BP.

Here is one proud bird who can still fly for now.

For Your Information

2010-06-07T15:41:00.005-05:00

The BP oil spill will not physically affect you or me here, because we are 200 miles away.

And it hopefully won't affect me at all, unless you stop coming to Louisiana based upon the media perception that ALL of Louisiana is now polluted and dangerous.

Just like Katrina was labelled a natural disaster to try to hide the truth, about the greatest engineering disaster in the history of the USA, likewise BP is also responsible for an engineering disaster and trying to call it an accident.

Unfortunately, we are not even recovered from Katrina and Rita, and here comes a man made disaster which was preventable, by installation of proper equipment, and has already become the greatest ecological disaster in our history and it is far from over.

If you want to help us here, come and visit our state as a tourist, and take the word home that we are OK, and open for business. We still have the food, music and swamp tours, Louisiana is famous for.

The Figs performing live at the Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette

And if New Orleans is too close to the oil spill for you, Lafayette is 200 miles from the oil spill. Our crawfish, shrimp, crabs and catfish are as yet uncontaminated.(frankly we don't know how big this oil spill will get as yet)

Lafayette is in the heart of Cajun Country, and has many of the things people go to New Orleans for, with none of the crime and scams New Orleans is also famous for.

I have just researched the Internet for free Cajun music online and I am disappointed that several of the references of the past have either changed programming or are not online at present due to website updates. So I will keep an eye on that one for you.

One is www.synclive.com which provided live streaming of performances of the Blue Moon Saloon. Also has an archive of performances past. They should be up and running again soon. I will keep you posted. Another one is www.960thegator.com and they changed Louisiana music programing to oldies. Its good music but I didn't realize that the music I grew up with is actually so old, they are calling it oldies!

Scuse me, I think I need a little bit of The Allman Brothers!

OK, I am back...2 cuts: Ramblin' Man, and Southbound and I am goood to go!

A yellow swallow-tailed butterfly on a passion flower, yah it is summertime!

Just so you know I am 54 years young. And on that note, I am just getting started making this world a better place to live and grow up in.

We do not own this world, we are borrowing it from our children.

Lets all work together to take care of it.

This is not the world I was born into.

Hmmm....I am taking personal responsibility here, these things like the BP oil spill happen because we let it happen. The protest should not only be against BP alone, but also our government, who failed to protect us from standing water in August 2005, after Katrina made landfall and was far inland in Mississippi when "it" overwhelmed the levees inside New Orleans. Then for 5 days people were left at the New Orleans Convention Center which is on the river, with a wharf. And they could not roll in relief on wheels, so they left those people to die there who could have been transported on the river. Don't tell me we ain't got boats in Louisiana. We have more boats per capita than any other state!

So bottom line here is if you want good Cajun and Zydeco music, you need to come to Lafayette and visit us. If the pollution from the BP oil spill is actually a real threat to your health here in Lafayette, I will be advising accordingly.

If you are coming to do my swamp tour, here are the GPS coordinates to the boat landing where I launch them. 91-54-20-00-W, 30-13-22-00-N But please call first, I do not live there and I am rarely waiting around the boat landing for people to drive up with NO RESERVATION! Call me at 337 298 2630, leave a message if I don't answer, and call back again in a few minutes. I usually always answer, unless I am sleeping.

American Lotus a summertime flower at Lake Martin.

The address to Lake Martin Landing, where I launch my tours is 1321 Rookery Road, Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, 70517

I am giving this out because the GPS, Google map, and Map Quest directions and locations given, are so screwed up for Lake Martin Landing, I am not getting into it here. Just trust me on this, it is best you call in advance to make reservations, because I do not run a regular schedule, and also get directions from where you are, to the lake.

And speaking of scheduling, my advice for the next 90 days is sunrise and sunset.

Button Bush blossom, another summertime flower at Lake Martin.

7-8 AM for the morning tour, meaning we will be out of there by 10-10:30 because we are having temperatures in the mid 90's till about 5-5:30 PM and so a late afternoon sunset tour is your next best option if you are not into waking up before dawn to do a sunrise at Lake Martin.

And as you can see below, the sunsets are definitely worth writing home about.

Here is one last thought: If a man says something in the woods and there is no woman around, is he still wrong?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The Cottage At Lake Martin

2010-05-24T17:21:00.008-05:00

On beautiful Bayou Capuchin...

and a five minute walk south to the largest rookery of wading birds in North America,

a five minute walk north to beautiful Lake Martin,

and a ten minute walk to Lake Martin Landing where I launch my swamp tours.

There is a new business at Lake Martin and it is right on John Hebert Road at Rookery Road, which means it is in walking distance to the entire Cypress Island/Lake Martin complex, and about 1/2 mile from where I launch my swamp tours.

If you are looking for a private retreat for 2 people, or a family of 4 can sleep with the foldout couch, you might give Mark and Terry a call for the newest accomodation at Lake Martin.

Click here to go to the site:

The Cottage at Lake Martin
Bed & Breakfast
1009 John D. Hebert Drive
Breaux Bridge, LA 70517

Mark & Terry Stolzer

337.235.0337

tkstolzer@yahoo.com

Louisiana Swamp Tour Alligators!

2010-05-10T19:48:00.005-05:00

At de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours we got alligators!

Someone called today and wanted to know if we had lots of alligators, and I said no we had acres of alligators. She had no sense of humor apparently and hung up.

So I contemplated what constitutes lots of alligators.

Is 40 or 50 alligator sightings on one tour, lots of alligators?

Then we have lots of alligators!

Well at least that is what we saw last Thursday, because we started at 7AM and by about 8:30 we had seen lots and by about 9:30 we had seen acres of alligators.

The next day, I started my first tour at 10:30 AM and we saw about 8. I actually witnessed several submerging before "we" could see them. I hate that when it is only me seeing the things I am attempting to share with my guests.

All of these photos were taken on one tour, and I assure you there were in a couple of places, about 8 or 10 at a time in view when we stopped on the north side of the lake and looked around.

So if alligators are what you want to see on a swamp tour, we got em, but my advise in planning your day as the weather warms up this spring is to come early. And 6 AM is not too early for me as I really like the light, fog, and abundance of wildlife that is there early on, but mostly gone by 10 AM, when most people show up for a summertime vacation swamp tour.

I know 6 AM is like going to work or school. But hey, you are on vacation, go take a long nap in the heat of the day. The best tours of the day when the temps are reaching near 90's is sunrise, and sunset. You will always see more wildlife at that time of the day in the heat of spring and summer.

So back to the tour...

And... right in the midst of acres of alligators, we discovered that the mulberry tree which is growing on the base of a Bald Cypress tree, about 1/4 mile from dry land was fruiting and ripe. It was the sweetest mulberries I have ever eaten! I assume the pH of swamp water is perfect for flavorful mulberry production.

We got our fingers all purple with sticky mulberry juice and indulged ourselves thoroughly, as my guests from the U.K. had never eaten mulberry before.

Amazing how a tree, I thought had to be land based, could sprout, grow, thrive and produce the most delicious fruit on the base of a cypress tree and feed hydroponically.

We had a delightful time and moved into a thick grove of cypress to video a mother Yellow Crowned Night Heron standing guard over her young on the nest.

The Yellow Crowned Night Herons return to Lake Martin every year to nest in the thick groves of young cypress which grow in standing water all year long.

These birds nest in these trees because the water holds alligators and the gators protect the birds from the predators who can swim and climb trees such as the raccoon.

We were about 12 feet away from the nest and I was living up to my reputation of disturbing the nesting birds in the rookery and exploiting them for profit. At least that is what the staff at the new Nature Conservancy Visitor Center is telling my guests when they go there to use the restrooms. One of my guests visited the welcome center before doing my swamp tour, to use the restrooms there, and a staff member advised her that "the swamp tours" were killing the rookery.

Truth be told, I am really glad to see that the birds have returned in record numbers to the main rookery on the south side of the lake, since The Nature Conservancy stopped draining the lake and keeping the water below normal in what was the largest rookery of wading birds in North America in the 1990's.

Maybe The Nature Conservancy should hire a local who knows what they are talking about instead of some college educated, liar from New York to manage and oversee the Cypress Island Preserve at Lake Martin.

So, maybe the birds, if not The Nature Conservancy, appreciate my blogging last year about the correlation of lower water levels and a decreased population of the nesting wading birds in the rookery here.

You see I have been a target of The Nature Conservancy for a decade and a half, for doing swamp tours into the rookery. I was in there before they acquired it! And in spite of my efforts to be a part of the neighborhood watch team to protect the nesting birds, the more I offered advise about my observations in there, I have to admit, I have always been treated as a inferior pest and intruder into the rookery.

And then, last year after writing articles in my blog, they stopped draining the lake in September 2009, and low and behold the birds returned to nest in record numbers.

Duuuhhh...It is common knowledge that the birds nest in trees that grow in standing water year round!

The mission statement of The Nature Conservancy: The mission of the Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.

You can visit their website by clicking the link above where they explain their success: We partner with indigenous communities, businesses, governments, multilateral institutions, other non-profits…and people such as yourself.

Why they would never work with me? Ohhh... I am a bad boy. OK.

Another thing I have to wonder about that mission statement in view of the management of the natural resources near the rookery is why do they mow down the flowers on Rookery Road at peak blooming?

And this isn't just about the flowers, we have a tractor mowing the roadside less than 50 feet away from where hundreds of wading birds are nesting and we had even more nesting there, a few years ago.

Say what? Ohhh... it looks better after it is mowed. Believe it or not, that's what she said!

I personally witnessed the present manager of The Cypress Island Preserve instructing the tractor driver to cut the weeds as close to the water as possible. Here is the tractor mowing the "grass and weeds" on the roadside near the new walkway constructed into the rookery. Ohh.. I wasn't supposed to say they were building a walkway into the rookery.

At least, that is what she asked me to do last year, was keep quiet about the construction of a walkway into the rookery where boat access is restricted.

Hmmmm....?

When I persisted, and asked again, why were they were building a walkway into the rookery? The Nature Conservancy staff manager advised me that the birds didn't nest where the walkway was being constructed.

Noooo... not since the lake was being drained every September, through the new drain gate installed on the Nature Conservancy property near the walkway!

At any rate this is what was growing on the roadside before the tractor came through at the peak of the springtime bloom this year.

Buttercups!

And native Louisiana Purple Iris

And native Louisiana Red Iris

And dew berry
And Spiderwort

It appears a few cypress trees planted by the Girl Scouts were mowed down too.

Oh well, we will keep planting them and hope some survive.

OK, I am finished picking on The Nature Conservancy, for now.

And let's have a look see what is happening in the Atchafalaya Basin at Henderson

Looks like crawfish to me and lots of them!

Or is that acres of crawfish?

Because of lots of snow melt coming down the Mississippi River and overflowing into the Atchafalaya basin swamp, we are having a super harvest of wild, deep water crawfish in Henderson.You can go visit my friends at McGees Landing Restaurant for boiled crawfish

Nice dining room overlooking the Atchafalaya Swamp

While in Henderson, if being in a small flatbottomed, crawfish boat getting up close and personal with alligators and winding through a dense mat of floating vegetation in a virgin cypress swamp with a know it all, who can't keep his trap shut about the Nature Conservancy, isn't your cup of tea, you can do a McGee's Landing swamp tour on a big boat with my friend Mr. Curtis Alleman, as seen below.

and if you want an airboat swamp tour they can arrange that too.

Also at the levee in Henderson is Pat's Fisherman's Wharf, which is a tradition in that it is proberbly the oldest or first Cajun Restaurant in Cajun country.

Also serving boiled crawfish, and if you are there to eat on the weekends there may be live Cajun or Creole Zydeco music in the Pat's Atchafalaya Club next door.

And don't forget Chicken on the Bayou at the Henderson Exit #115, north of Interstate 10, is also serving boiled crawfish and their world famous, Crawfish Ettoufe with fried shrimp.

My mouth is watering...

Most of my references point to off beat Mom and Pop kind of places but we have full service big time convention opportunities in Lafayette too. So should you be planning a convention, a wedding or a reunion in Lafayette, I have a reference for you: The Lafayette Holidome, A.K.A. The Holiday Inn Hotel - Lafayette, Louisiana. Lafayette's only renovated, resort-style, full service hotel. This Lafayette hotel is located at the intersection of I-10 and I-49, easily accessible to the "City of Lafayette", Lafayette Regional Airport and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and The Lite Center, and 15 minutes away from de la Houssaye's Swamp Tours. They are recognized for a fine Cajun restaurant named Bistro du Cayenne's, successful meetings, flawless weddings and memorable reunions.

More Features: Lafayette’s only completely renovated, full service, pet friendly hotel with an indoor air-conditioned family fun park that includes indoor pool, tennis, volleyball, soccer, basketball and “Kid’s safe” playground.

To go their website click here: The Lafayette Holiday Inn

See you at the lake Beau Jocque,a de la Houssaye's N.A.L.C. registered Catahoula Cur

And a post card from Louisiana