Manding Nguyen

I can't register anything.

For a moment, I feel myself disappear, dissolving into the dark world of water and salamanders.

Turns out there's maybe another explanation for what I was feeling.

When we get back to the entrance, Andy says that the cave has bad air.

Limestone releases carbon dioxide and the cave restricts airflow, so there's literally too much CO2 in there.

I may just have been experiencing low-grade hypoxia, but still.

I can see why Andy keeps coming back to this world and to the salamander again and again.

How often do you get the chance to chase a decades-old mystery in an eerie underground world that just happens to be in your backyard?

So even though it's missing, there's no reason to write it off.

The blanco-blind salamander's ecosystem is our ecosystem, an entire world right under our feet, spilling out and sustaining the world above.

Before Benji and I leave Texas, Andy tells us that we have to go visit the San Marcos River, which is fed by the Edwards Aquifer.

We stand at the river's edge.

And for a moment, we just take in the bright sun, the blue sky, the sparkling water, and all the people enjoying it.