Cajun Hostel with a side order of Timbuktu
Outside of big cities, the USA doesn’t have a heck of a lot of guesthouses of the hostel type. A place where you can NOT make reservations in advance and have a good chance of landing a cheap bed, or find yourself in an atmosphere where single travellers can congregate. Lafayette, probably considered the capital of cajun country, does have one called the Blue Moon Guesthouse. Clean, has a 50s soda pop vibe, nice front porch, wifi, and computer access and a lovely shared living room area.
My room, for a 4 bunker (which I had alone), was $18/night, linens included. But enough about that, what was really cool about the place, besides the meet other people travelling vibe, was that its back porch doubled as a little bar and music space, and starting around 7 o’clock, the place was packed with locals toting their instruments ready for a little cajun jam session. I got myself an abita strawberry ale, and with my flipflops on and t shirt and sweatpants I joined the group for a while, then would go back to my room and do my own thing. Then back outside for the jam.
The cajun locals are wonderful. First they do speak with that accent that can be difficult to follow, and many of them actually speak French. They are open, abundantly friendly, and the opposite of reserved. The gentleman I was sitting with, a white haired guy, probably in his 60s asked me my name and where I was from. No more than 10 minutes later someone else comes up to me and tells me they heard I had lived in Manhattan for a while and was asking me some tips! It was kind of nice actually, as I didn’t have to keep introducing myself, nor telling the same old stories. As I obviously was one of the few non locals in the place, everyone got the scoop from each other (quickly!) and introduced themselves.
There was a special going on tonight at the blue moon… it wasn’t going to be straight zydeco, and actually it looked like a lot of the locals weren’t going to get to rosen up their bows afterall, because hanging out on the back porch with us was Mamadou Diabate, in the area for a local zydeco festival, and also Jazzfest down in New Orleans. He is a native of Mali (maybe or maybe not Timbuktu, but it sounded better in the title), and plays an instrument that is called a kora, which looks to me like a gourd string base. In Mali, they have a caste system, and Mamadou grew up in a caste that are specifically musicians (called jeli caste). You can imagine how much of a master of this instrument this man is to have made his way internationally.
What a cool things to watch, he played for awhile on his own, what I would guess to be more traditional Malian kora melodies, but then a band of cajun players joined him, and he joined in the zydeco fun. One of the locals asked me to dance the waltz (which is still danced here, though not exactly a normal waltz), taught me a few steps and whirled me around this tiny space cleared for waltzing activities. Afterward properly thanked me for the dance, and went on his merry way!
What I did:
Blue Moon Guesthouse, 1-877-766-BLUE (2583), 215 East Convent St. Lafayette, LA, http://www.bluemoonhostel.com/index.html
Mamadou Diabate, http://www.mamadoukora.com/
Tags: Blue Moon Saloon, Cajun, Deep South, Deep South USA, Guesthouse, Lafayette, Mamadou Diabate, Road trip, Roadtrip, USA, Tag Index
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