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A 50-year-old woman has emerged after spending 500 days in an underground cave in Southern Spain.
Beatriz Flamini entered the cave, which was about 70 meters (230 feet) underground, on November 20, 2021, according to Reuters and the Associated Press.
On Friday, the Madrid native exited the cave around 9 a.m. local time.
Flamini said she had plenty to do to pass the time by exercising, reading books, drawing, painting, and knitting. Additionally, the woman actually had doubts about leaving.
“In fact, I didn’t want to come out,” she said.
The BBC reports she was 48 years old when she first entered the cave in Granada, a city in southern Spain’s Andalusia region. Flamini, described in reports as an athlete, was monitored by psychologists, researchers, and speleologists who study caves.
But they never made contact with her, per reports.
Flamini told the AP and BBC that she lost track of time after about two months.
When she left the cave on Friday, she thought she had only been underground for about 160 or 170 days, as opposed to nearly 500.
At some point, she said, “They came in to get me,” although she protested, explaining that she “hadn’t finished her book.”
“When they came in to get me, I was asleep. I thought something had happened,” Flamini told reporters, per Reuters’ report. “I said: ‘Already? Surely not.’ I hadn’t finished my book.”
The experiment was part of a project named “Timecave,” the AP reports. The experiment reportedly aims to analyze how humans handle living underground and without any daylight for long periods of time.
Researchers are assessing the impacts of social isolation and extreme disorientation in such unforgiving environments.
Meanwhile, Flamini divulged that she has yet to follow any news or updates since leaving the cave.
“I’m still stuck on November 21, 2021,” Flamini told reporters Friday. “I don’t know anything about the world.”
However, the unsuspecting woman may have created news of her own. Flamini’s team believes she’s set a precedent for surviving the longest while underground.
The Guinness Book of Records has yet to confirm that possibility as of this article’s publication.
Flamini was provided a panic button had the situation become no longer tenable. However, she persevered — even through a fly invasion that covered her in bugs.
Flamini also spoke of hearing “auditory hallucinations” during her time in the cave, apparently, to the point where she needed help standing up while talking with the press due to balance issues.
Despite this, the extreme athlete says she enjoyed the experience, calling it “excellent” and “unbeatable.”
“You have to remain conscious of your feelings,” Flamini said, according to Reuters. “If you’re afraid, that’s something natural but never let panic in or you get paralyzed.”
What do you say, Roommates? Could you spend that kind of time underground?
