Beatriz Flamini, a Spanish female mountain climber on Friday resurfaced from a cave 70 meters (230 feet) underground where she spent 500 days isolated from the outside world.
AP reports that the 50 years old climber left who the cave in southern Spain after she had completed the feat she set out to accomplish on Nov. 21, 2021.
Flamini’s pursuit was part of a project called Timecave that was designed to study how someone would fare going solo underground for so long.
At a press conference , Flamini said she felt she was still living in the day she went down in 2021 and had no idea what had gone on in the world since, including Russia’s war in Ukraine. With no sense of time, she said she stopped trying to count days after calculating she was down there some 60 days.
Flamini said that at no point did she feel like giving up, not even during an invasion of flies that she cited as the source of her worst memories.
“In fact, I didn’t want to come out,” she said.
Flamini said she used the time “to read, to draw, to weave, to be, to enjoy. I am where I want to be.” She admitted to missing certain things but said “this is part of the project. There is nothing to do but accept it.”
She apologized for stumbling over her answers to questions.
“I’ve been a year and a half without talking and I find it difficult,” she said.
