After spending New Years eve around Cacao we drove a bit further south. We spend a night at a campsite where we went on several walks. The following day we drove further in the jungle to spend some time at a carbet near a river. It was quite the drive into the jungle but because it was weekend there were more people than expected. A lot of them hunting, sadly, which could also explain why we didn’t see any wild life. After spending about 4 days in the middle of nowhere it was time for some grocery shopping and Finnley’s vet appointment so we headed back to Cayenne.
Here we talked to the vet about a possible penis amputation for Finnley, since non of the meds and diet food seemed to be working. After careful consideration we decided not to go ahead with it just yet. At the moment he’s alright and can pee, although he still has some pain peeing. But he is stable and in the Netherlands there are more treatment options. It doesn’t feel right, chopping of his penis… Finnley also received treatment from a holistic vet near Cayenne and this helped a bit as well. The holistic vet and the regular vet had put Finnley on some other meds so we did decide to stay in the area a bit longer to make sure he would remain stable. I had done a bit of online research and it was clear that the vets in French Guyana would be the last decent vets for a while.
Having done all the necessary stuff in Cayenne we went for a few more walks. One of them being sentier Bagne des Annamites. Finnley just followed us along the trail, off leash. When he didn’t want to walk anymore he got to rest in his backpack. He did really well except for the one time he decided to take of into the dense jungle, fortunately Kilian could grab him just in time. He probably would have come back to us on his own, but you never know, it was of course the first time we were there.
The hiking trail leads to a river where you can swim so here we had a little break before heading back. On our way back we checked out the remains of the former Indo-China prison camp. Here prisoners of war where kept and put to work, under less than ideal circumstances. Their descendants now live in the nearby Cacao and other parts of the three Guyana countries.
Back at the van we decided to spend the night at the parking. Just when we set up camp a pick up truck stopped with Christian and his wife Raymonde. They have a campervan as well and have done some travelling and they invited us to stay with them, 20 minutes further down the road. We accepted and spend two nights in their beautiful garden. We had breakfast together and a few conversations although they spoke very little English. So far the people in French Guyana are quite hospitable! After two days we left and went back once again to Cayenne. By now our gas tank was well and truly empty. So we decided to try the gravity filling one more time. It was a lot warmer now, which of course is positive for the gas. And his time it worked, so we could cook again.
By now Finnley had been stable for a while and we decided to “risk it” and headed north. We checked out the beautiful church of Saint Joseph near Iracoubo before finally arriving in Coucachi.
Here we drove to Yves-Marc’s house. He works as a magnetizer and I have had pretty good experience with this in the past both with animals and for myself. I had contacted him and he agreed to see if he could help Finnley. We ended up staying the afternoon and staying for dinner. We camped in his front yard. Another friendly hospitable family! We shared stories and experiences and in general had a very good time. The following morning we had breakfast together and finally in the afternoon we managed to leave, although we could have stayed longer. It is quite remarkable that we were invited three times in this little country in such a short time! Leaving this nice family behind we drove on to a beach near Les Hattes. A small town with a beach, windy enough to keep the huge amounts of mosquitoes away, well most of them. As soon as we walked about 20m from the beach we would be swarmed by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes however don’t really bother Finnley so he checked out the grassy fields behind the beach. Here he became friend with another cat. He had such a nice time here that we stayed an extra night.
After some shopping in St. Laurent du Maroni we drove once again into the jungle although its more like a forest here than an actual jungle. We visited chutes de Voltaire; a huge waterfall. We spend some more time in the area, camping at some nice places, sometimes near a carbet, sometimes just a spot we found while driving. St. Laurent is also a border town with Suriname. But there’s no road between French Guyana and Suriname and you have to cross the river with a ferry that only goes on weekdays.
With the weekend fast approaching we went back one more time to the beach near Les Hattes and this time we went on a night time walk to see sea turtles lay eggs on the beach. Its not a protected area so there’s no need for a guide or a tour. We met up with a guy from Belgium and walked across the dark beach. It took a while but our patience was rewarded with seeing three turtles in various stages of digging a hole and laying eggs! Fortunately the Belgian guy had a good camera that also takes nice photo’s in the dark. It was really nice to witness these beautiful and large animals in the wild!
Then on Monday the 27th of January we took a ferry to Suriname. We had been looking forward to visiting this formerly Dutch colony. And I will tell you all about our adventures there in our February blog!
