Today afternoon we travelled down to the nine stages of Mayan underworld. First the cave birds greeted us and ancient stairs made by the Mayans themselves led our way down. The muddy caught on our boots and the cave wall sparkled every time our headlight swept the embedded minerals. As the mud accumulated on our boots the great halls and tight entrances into another alternated. Bats glanced at our light from the holes dug over generations of their presence. We could see the cave entrance after overcoming the ninth chamber. On the journey back we entered a very tight opening where we ended up at where an unfortunate and lost peccary skeleton sneered at us. The poor animal must have been wandering in darkest dark until it died of starvation. The humidity generated from our own breath and apparently lowering oxygen level simulated the peccary’s death.

After returning from the underworld, we went to install our pitfall traps of our own urine. We set traps of urine set on the trunk of trees and on the ground, comparing the amount of bugs searching for sources of nitrogen. If the fraction of number of bugs in the urine trap over that in the control water trap in the canopy is higher than that of floor, it will count toward the hypothesis that nitrogen availability in the canopy is lower than that of forest floor.
In the process I caught some ant species. I am going to identify them tomorrow. One seemed like a species of Camponatus while the other was unsure. Judging by how I caught them so easily in the evening, these species seem active in that time. Also my ant catching skill seems to have improved.