Driving North we camped at several wild camp locations, nothing very interesting. We had one overnight stay in a hotel with a pool, before travelling on. We were tired of continuous travelling in the heat and this one night stay in a hotel made us realise we could really use a break from the heat and dust and decided to find a nice place to stay for a few days searching we found a nice hotel, pet friendly and with secure parking near Parnaiba. We spend two relaxing days at Casa Della, with a swimming pool, air-conditioning and breakfast was included as well. I would have loved to stay a bit longer but even in tropical Brazil money doesn’t grow on trees. Close to the hotel we also found a nice wild camp spot at the beach to relax a bit more.
Well rested we drove on to Lencois. Lencois is well known for its big dune area. Because its a national park you are not allowed to drive in there yourself, you have to hire a guide. However just below the national park you have the “Pequeno Lencois” another big dune area that’s not a national park so basically a free for all. So this is where we went. Using an old track and inventing our own track we managed to end up near the river Rio Preguicas. A beautiful spot in the pristine dunes with a nice river in front of us and some mangrove forest a bit to the right. It wasn’t easy getting here. The sand is very soft and deep in some places. We had to let the air out of the tires and do some reconnaissance on foot before driving further. But we didn’t get stuck and were very pleased with ourselves for having this little adventure! We enjoyed cooling down in the river and Finnley enjoyed running around freely. Apart from some boats on the river we were completely alone in this remote area.
The next day, a Sunday I took Finnley for a little walk towards the mangrove bush. Finnley just follows me so off leash, at some point he went in to the Mangrove while I walked on a little further in the dunes. On walking back I checked to see where Finnley had gone. And to my huge surprise he was ready to start a cat fight with a small red kitten! I couldn’t believe my eyes, here was this 10 week old (more or less) kitten in the middle of absolutely nowhere, all by himself! We had seen a few small farms a couple of kms back but they would have been to far to walk for a grown cat, let alone a kitten. I took Finnley back to the van and made sure Kilian kept him there. Then I went back. There was no way I was going to leave this kitten here alone to die a certain dead. It took a lot of effort because the kitten was scared. A mangrove is a muddy area with lots of tree roots, bushes and a zillion mosquitoes. The dunes around it were steep sandy hills. So not exactly an easy area to walk around in. Fortunately the kitten was hungry, so with some smelly cat food I had it safely in the backpack an hour later. By then I was absolutely covered in mud, mosquito bites, mosquito spray, sand, sweat and some cat food. I also checked the mangroves for other cats but found nothing. Back at the van I checked the kitten over and apart from being hungry and scared this little boy seemed fine. However Finnley was not fine with it! Normally when you introduce a new cat, you do this slowly, this wasn’t possible given the circumstances. At the end I had to keep the kitten in the backpack to stop Finnley from attacking him! Not an ideal solution, especially not overnight. And later that evening I noticed Finnley seemed to have some pain in his underbelly when I picked him up, although he was eating fine. So the next day we left, we found a small pet shop / vet in the next town and fortunately they agreed to take in the kitten and find it a new home. By then Finnley was still sore and clearly not happy. In our experience these small town vets have little expertize and equipment so we drove all day to go to a vet hospital in Sao Luis, to make sure Finnley got the best care.
We arrived in Sao Luis on Monday the 13th in the evening and went straight to DOK veterinary hospital. I thought Finnley would have some intestinal issues, maybe ate some of the Brazilian wildlife? Turned out his bladder was full and he couldn’t pee anymore. I saw him pee just fine on Sunday afternoon, so this was really sudden. He was diagnosed with an acute case of FLUTD, Feline, Lower Urinary Tract Disease. He needed a catheter in his urethra to unblock this and was hospitalised and treated straight away. A too full bladder can rupture and causes death. While Finnley was in hospital we parked in their parking lot. Just like we did when Binkie fought for his life and lost, little over a year ago…. We spend three days in this parking lot, on the concrete, with almost no shade and 35C. On Tuesday afternoon they took out his catheter and we got Finnley back who then was incontinent for two days, leaking drops of bloody urine everywhere and we took him in for treatment and tests a few times a day.
After three days he was well enough for us to leave the hospital parking lot and camp in the area. After some searching we found a little park with shade with friendly neighbours where we could stay. I had also been looking for accommodation to stay. This turned out to be very difficult because we want secure parking. Most parking area’s are actually outdoor and don’t have any height limits, BUT the entrance gate usually has a height limit of 2m… So annoying. After several days we found a hotel that was a bit of run down but clean, cat friendly and had outdoor secure parking with a high enough gate. We ended up staying here twice, 6 days the first time and a week later another 2 days. Finnley just didn’t recover like he should so we kept having to go back to the vet. In between we stayed at the beach as well and also at the park again. It wouldn’t be until the 2nd of December before Finnley was finally well enough to leave the city, but still not completely better. And he is still having problems, while I’m writing this.
The Brazilias like to party at the beach. Near Sao Luis you can drive your car on the beach. Almost every car has a sound system and every car blasts out their own music. They either bring their own food or go to a restaurant. The restaurants set up little tents on the beach for shade and hammocks. You can park your car next to a little tent for convenience. This means there’s a lot of traffic on the beach. Never before did I have to look in both directions before crossing the beach!
While in Sao Luis we visited the old town which looked a lot like Salvador and also saw the beaches. Unfortunately there wasn’t much else to do but hang around and worry about Finnley.
