One of the primary reasons we were interested in this cave was to sample the ammonia levels under what is one of the larger colonies of cave bats in Costa Rica. To do this required Guy to build essentially from scratch a tripod-mounted sampler that had five chambers that opened and closed at a programmable interval. Got that?
So what happens is that each of the five tubes near the top is spring-loaded, and you push one down and load an ammonia absorber into it. Then you do that for the other four. Guy previously hooked this up to his laptop and programmed in for the thing to work so that each tube was open for a couple hours before closing again, giving five samples over the course of a day. Also key was that at that point we had to go and change the absorbers and it would hopefully be low tide. The tide charts were consulted and Guy programmed his contraption to be timed with the tides as well.
So off we went at low tide, which was of course quite late at night when all the good people of the world should have been asleep. At the cave entrance Guy got the thing out and ready to go.
So what happens is that each of the five tubes near the top is spring-loaded, and you push one down and load an ammonia absorber into it. Then you do that for the other four. Guy previously hooked this up to his laptop and programmed in for the thing to work so that each tube was open for a couple hours before closing again, giving five samples over the course of a day. Also key was that at that point we had to go and change the absorbers and it would hopefully be low tide. The tide charts were consulted and Guy programmed his contraption to be timed with the tides as well.
So off we went at low tide, which was of course quite late at night when all the good people of the world should have been asleep. At the cave entrance Guy got the thing out and ready to go.
Guy and the magical programmable automatic ammonia sampler outside the Campanario Bat Cave
Next was to lower it to the bottom and get it inside before a wave could come crashing in and soak it.
Lowering the sampler down the drop between waves
And finally, Guy installed it in the cave and checked things over and all was good I in the world.
Guy van Rentergem installs his automatic ammonia sampler in the Campanario Bat Cave
For all intents and purposes, this was as far into the cave as we could go. The climb right behind Guy was un-climbable, but we could actually see the end of the cave from there once we got a stepladder into the cave later. Wait...climb was un-climbable...you had a stepladder in the cave...and...didn't use the ladder to do the climb???
All true. It wasn't unclimbable due to the structure of the cave or it being too high. Depending on which direction you are reading my blog you either know why, or the next post will answer exactly that question.
All true. It wasn't unclimbable due to the structure of the cave or it being too high. Depending on which direction you are reading my blog you either know why, or the next post will answer exactly that question.
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