An elite Spanish athlete who spent
500 days isolated in a cave
, without direct contact with the outside or natural light, came to the surface this Friday stating that the experience had been
"excellent, unbeatable"
.
"I haven't talked to anyone for a year and a half, just myself,"
Beatriz Flamini told reporters after leaving, helped by speleologists, from a cave located about 10 kilometers from Motril (Andalusia, south), where she spent 500 days to 70 meters below ground.
Flamini had books, artificial light and cameras to record her experience, although she
did not have a telephone or instruments to control the time
, and she was supported by a technical team that left her food somewhere in the cave without having contact with her.
"I don't know what has happened in the world (...)
for me it is still November 21, 2021
", the first day in the cave, "and seeing you all with a mask, for me it is still (the pandemic) covid" said Flamini, 50, referring to the journalists, who wore masks for safety.
One of the scenes inside the cave where Beatriz Flamini spent 500 days.
Photo: via REUTERS.
"There have been many challenges of this type,
but none with all the premises that have been set
: alone and in total isolation, without contact with the outside, without (natural) light, without time references," said David Reyes, from the Andalusian Federation of Speleology, who was in charge of Flamini's security.
The experience, which is going to be the
subject of a documentary
by the Spanish production company
Dokumalia
, had as one of its objectives to see the
mental and physical repercussions of isolation like this
.
Beatriz Flamini, received upon leaving the Motril cave, in Granada.
Photo: EFE/ Alba Feixas
It has been "an extreme resistance test", estimated on public television the Minister of Tourism, Héctor Gómez, who said he hoped that
"this test would be of great scientific value".
"The ship sets sail again on a journey that will last 500 days (...) We meet again in April/May 2023," Flamini had written on
in November 2021, two days before starting his experience.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Beatriz Flamini.
Official (@beatriz_flamini)
"There have been difficult moments and it is true that there have been very beautiful moments and both have been the ones that have managed to achieve" the objective, said at the press conference this athlete who in the past spent periods of isolation on mountain peaks, according to reported on
.
Affirming that she "never" thought of giving up, not even when she suffered
an invasion of flies
inside the cave, she said that she dedicated the time "to reading, writing, drawing, knitting, being, enjoying".
Beatriz Flamini, in her talk with the press after leaving the Motril cave.
Photo: EFE/ Alba Feixas.
"I have not spoken to myself out loud, the conversations that I have had, I have had absolutely internally," she said.
"I've gotten along very well with myself," she added, smiling.
Source: AFP