More Diversity in a Cave or in the Rainforest?

Incredible desert sunset right now. pinks and blue greys all across the horizon. Training is almost over. I have crawled through corksrews and pinches (only room for your head to the side), up ladders and ropes and over the grand canyon and across chimmneys with 10-30 foot drops. caves are so mysterious--you never know what you will see next or what problem you will face. It is alot like diving although the risks do not seem quite as high and you can communicate so much easier with people with you--just not with people above water or ground.

I think the most amazing thing I have learned is that there is more biodiversity in the microbes in certain caves than in the amazon rainforest. in one pool they found 1,200 differnt kinds of microbes that were not even closely realated to each other--this is like finding humans and tomatoes in the same small pool. that is hard to wrap my mind around.

PS. the chicken run was completed and now we wait for eggs--hopefully august/ early sept.