Bayou Teche — The Snake That Became a River

The Chitimacha creation legend says a giant snake carved Bayou Teche as it died—and geology confirms the bayou is an abandoned channel of the Mississippi. The word *teche* comes from the Chitimacha word for snake. The river that wasn't a river became the name that was. For two centuries, Bayou Teche was the primary transportation artery connecting New Iberia, St. Martinville, and Breaux Bridge to New Orleans. The bayou runs 125 miles from Port Barre in St. Landry Parish to Berwick in St. Mary Parish. It's now a designated Louisiana Scenic Byway and a National Water Trail. Best accessed by kayak or canoe. Multiple public launch points between Breaux Bridge and New Iberia. You go to see what a snake left behind, and what a river still does.