MARCH 7

Explored corredores cave and took a few samples of water, bat guano, some unknown feces and a piece of moulded vegetation. Base camp not yet completeley set up..no showers or latrines.Temperatures in the high nineties, humidity measured at 28 percent. Weather clear and quite uncomfortable. Hike up the riverto the cave was about 1.3 miles in fast moving water up to 4 feet deep in places. Rocks were very slimy and made footing difficult.The cave had quite a few fruit eating bats that made audible wing noises and created a comfortable breeze when they came close enough. there were several small patches of guano everywhere with larger concentrations in roosting areas. Large foot long stalks were seen growing from chestnut sized seeds but only in a few places. In guano piles were very large bat bones which were not collected. One partly decomposed bat with a complete skull was observed but not collected. No vampire bats were seen directly,but a few scattered pools of tar-like material were seen and sampled. formalin fixed material from one such puddle contained liver-fluke like organisms, fibres of bat hair, plant material of a cellulose-like nature, one short reddish solid strand resembling a veinule, and one rather large tube with dark spots along its spine. A live sample of material was requested for further study. On the return from the cave, a small bunch of plantain was located and picked for dinner..not bad but needed salt.

MARCH 8

Blood agar base did not arrive, so Blastomycosis testing will be limited to perfect-stage cultures on Sabourauds.Due to the near 100 degree temperatures, cultures will be incubated at ambient. Humidity still 28 percent. pH meters were calibrated today. Horses arrived and remote camp shipped out.Crab brought in called cangrejo was located by survey crew in a dripwater pool in Ano Nuevo the water tested pH 7.8 - was transferred to an orange top tube and fresh camp water was added.Was fed with meat from camp and ate well. The location is where the stream first appears near a slick rock chute appx 100 feet from entrance. Water in tube marked #1 crab.

MARCH 9

4.3 mile hike to Carma cave in Cano Seco. Identified several edible local plants including palmitos - palmetto, wahwah- a large flat seed pod where the seeds have a white furry sweet tasting coat that is eaten and the seed is spit out. Also a small greenbean-like pod called espavel. Saw fluffy seed pods of balsa wood.In carma cave took three samples- one water at insurgence, one of soil in white room in la caverna encondida (virgin) and one virgin dripwater - clean catch. Noted many cattle prints on trail up to entrance and many fecal masses.

MARCH 10

samples plated from all tubes including late incoming samples from Burnt Bananna-white mycelium on bat bones(b1)

MARCH 13

beach day. On return from beach there as a bananna plantation alongside the road that exuded an odor remeniscent of a fungus culture.

MARCH 14

specimen of firefly indentified as elateridae: Elaterussp. This insect was collected near remote camp. Nearest cave:Bananal. Remote camp leaving at four PM...gave Norma tubes for water and soil samples. heavy rain again tonite. Delay in media prep...too many people in lab.

MARCH 18

Norma brought back a water sample from remote camp where three explorers have come down with flu-like symptoms and diarrhea.Suspect amoebic problems- Sabarauds cultures without antibiotics have mostly bacterial or yeast forms with a few mycelial colonies. Ano Nuevo seems to be the cave with the heaviest fungus concentration to date. Plate counts gave heavy bacterial counts for the ice at the Moderna restaraunt. One plate count had an area of inhibition indicating antibiotic activity against dendritic colonies that were also visible on the plate. Was able to pick up penicillin G and Ketokonazole at a local pharmacy. Will make plates today with antibacterial activity and start cultures of bat bones and some of the fungus specimens.

MARCH 19

Penicillin plates have good isolation characteristics. Grand gallery fungus is cleanly separated on pen-sabarauds. Caught a red snake today - locals call it the Blood Snake. It is supposed to have haemolytic properties; it looks harmless by enough. It is mostly red with a black and yellow band around the neck and a black nose. The snake was placed in a nalgene bottle with numerous perforations and prepareed for a journey to the University of San Jose on Thursday. Ano Nuevo fungus culture has a distinct fruity odor, and well worth furtherstudy..Possibly a symbiotic association with insects or fruiteating bats? Esthers are usually produced by Zygomycetes.