Since I was going to pass through Miami, I decided to spend another hundred dollars and go to the Bahamas. It is a great place for Cerion and the best island would be New Providence, according to the Cerion page of the Smithsonian website - a fantastic work by Jerry Harasewych (http://invertebrates.si.edu/cerion/). Almost one hundred species are listed for that island, most of them described by Maynard at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

On my previous trip to the Bahamas in 2005, I found nearly 30 species in Exuma and Eleuthera Islands (http://www.femorale.com/articles/bahamas/2005/?id=7), thus I was very anxious to find some more in New Providence.

To book my flight I went to the American Airlines website, typed in “Nassau Bahamas” to see the best schedules available. I saw one that was perfect for my dates and time, copied the info and passed it on to my travel agent. It would be a very short trip, just two and half days. My arrival would be on Wednesday 1:00 PM and departure on Saturday noon. The next step was booking a hotel. I got another good deal on American Airlines website, Sandyport Beaches Resort in Nassau (http://www.sandyport.com/) for US$95.00/day. Its location, in the middle northern part of the island, was perfect so I could drive from there to most places in a short time. Since Bahamas has left-hand traffic, I decided to rent a scooter as I did in the Cook Islands , rather than rent a car. (http://www.femorale.com/articles/cooks/rarotonga/?id=4)

Everything ready and confirmed, I arrived at the Miami airport to board my flight to Nassau. The American Airlines attendant asked me:

- Where to?
- Bahamas
- Nassau?
- Yes
She looked at the computer and said
- No, here it says Freeport
- Excuse me?
- It is not Nassau, your reservation is for Freeport

Damn it! When I copied the information from the AA website I did not notice that it gave me more island options than I requested! So I was flying to Freeport instead of Nassau! Luckily it was a very short flight, 35 minutes, so when I arrived at the airport I rushed to the Domestic Terminal, bought another ticket to Nassau and waited one more hour for that flight. Finally in Nassau I was greeted by a taxi driver who took me to the hotel, I also asked him to pick me up a couple days later for my flight back to Freeport. He gave me his card so I could call him to confirm on Friday night.

The hotel was very good and close to a nice white sand beach with emerald green waters. The clerk helped me rent a scooter (not very cheap, $50.00 per day) and when they brought it, I took off on a short tour around the hotel. I think Nassau is a little more populated and modern than when Maynard collected his specimens. Well, I still had two whole days to explore, so I went back to the hotel to snorkel a bit. The sun was still bright so I quickly pulled my snorkel gear together and went to the beach. The water was warm and clear, but not as beautiful or full of life as in the Exumas. Of course marine shells were not my main goal, but I expected to find more than a few Columbellidae and other common shells.

After a good night’s sleep, I drove to the east side of the island. I carefully passed through downtown keeping in mind that I had to stay on the left side of the road, and stopped at every spot that seemed to be natural forest. At my first stop I did not find a single Cerion, just a few dead Zachrysia and Hemithrochus varians. But I did find a few dead Cerion on an empty lot next to some recently built houses. After 4 hours, I arrived back at the hotel for a quick lunch (soothed by a cold beer). I then left for Coral Harbour on the south side of the island. Although it was less populated, I did not find any sign of land shells. What I did find everywhere I looked was trash. I did not believe how such a beautiful place could be so dirty! Seems like people go to dump trash in the nicest places they can find!

From Coral Harbour I went towards Old Fort Bay using an unpaved road under construction but it was very dry and hot, again not suitable for land shells. I just wished the scooter had refrigerated compartments for cold drinks - it was not very refreshing to sip hot water from a bottle stored under the seat. Back at the hotel, I prepared for another snorkeling, but I did not want to carry as much as before, so I left my hand dredge, camera and screwdriver, just took a small shelling bag. Found more species than before, including a huge and beautiful chiton. But my diving buddy, Murphy, was there again (you know him, author of Murphys Law). Just then I realized that I left my screwdriver in the room and did not have anything to pry the chiton off the rock which was too big to carry. I looked for something to use but I did not find any usable trash. I then used something which I believe was never used before to remove a chiton: the hotel room card key! After fighting a bit, I was able to get it off with little damage to the girdle (the card was never the same after that).

The next morning, I drove to South Beach - far different from Miami’s South Beach. On the way I spotted at least three dead dogs on the road, one of them totally melted into the asphalt. The tide was very low and I parked next to a flat beach. I got several Batillaria minima, Natica, and a few bivalves. I drove farther to the end of the road and arrived at a place that seemed to be a dumpster (well, the whole area looked like that!). Although I did not have an off-road motorcycle, I went far inside that ugly place until I reached a not so dirty patch. I looked down and saw a dead Cerion; I finally was rewarded with a reasonable number of specimens, including live ones. Some Cerion live on bushes or trees, but these were under dead leaves. I did not find a single specimen hanging on a branch or any other surface. I also found some live Opisthosiphon bahamiense which I collected dead in other places on this trip. Live ones can be found under dead leaves on the moist side of some tree bases, probably the only place relatively fresh and away from the heat.

It was time for lunch, so I drove back to Sandyport. On the way I tasted the authentic local cuisine at a fancy restaurant, Subway. I wanted to find more Cerion, but where? I tried every single street I crossed on the way, even in a luxurious condominium area, Oak Hills. Incidentally, I saw more mansions there than anywhere else in the Caribbean until now! Huge and expensive homes, most are vacation homes for rent or for sale. I saw an empty lot and found a few more very dead Cerion, nearly fossil. Behind the lot was a forest of big trees and a small entrance just beyond a pile of junk (of course junk, what else is an empty lot for?). I’m not very fond of jungles but I had to give it a try. After passing the junk, there was a path of fossil coral like someone had built a sidewalk, very weird. I got another live Zachrysia and Opisthosiphon, saw some spiders and one small snake. But the strange thing was a wall made of the same fossil coral. I realized then what I had thought had been a path was actually the wall that had collapsed to the ground. That structure looked very ancient, but I found no gold coins or treasure chest, so I went back to the hotel.

That night I called the taxi to confirm my schedule and he said he would be at the hotel by 6:45 AM. My flight to Freeport was at 8:00 AM and to Miami at noon so I had plenty of time, but I could not miss it or I would have a lot of trouble since I had to fly back to Brazil the same night. I got up very early, and went to the hotel entrance to wait for the taxi. Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen. I called him, and by the sound of his voice he was still asleep. He said don’t worry, if you arrive half an hour before your flight, you will be fine; but I was very worried! A lady saw me standing on the road and asked me if I needed a ride I could not believe it, but she kindly drove me to the airport and I got there in time. In time for what? The flight was delayed by one hour! Then for two hours, then three hours! I was going to miss my flight to Miami! When we finally took off, I desperately asked the flight attendant to contact American Airlines to beg them to wait 10 more minutes, but when I got to Freeport it was too late, I missed the flight.

Luckily there was one more flight scheduled for 5:10 PM. I had almost four hours before my new flight so I went for a walk to look for shells near the airport but found nothing. Freeport Airport is not exactly like Dallas-Forth Worth; not much to look at or stores to buy gifts. So I sat there waiting for my flight, played solitaire hundreds of times on my cell phone. When the time to board approached, I noticed that there was no plane outside. Guess what? The flight was delayed! One hour, two hours three hours! I was going to miss my flight to Brazil! I decided I did not want to have any more stress so I called American Airlines and changed my flight to the next day, hoping they had seats available, and they did. I arrived in Miami and I am glad I decided not to fly again that day. I was already too late to catch my flight to Brazil.

I arrived at my brother’s home in Miami, had some wine, watched TV and had a good night’s sleep. My brother Marcello gave me some extra VIP vouchers to upgrade my flight, so I had a very relaxing trip back to Brazil in Business Class!

English checking by John Wolff