Spaniard lives in a cave for 500 days – what’s behind it?

Mountaineer and speleologist Beatriz Flamini has surfaced since Friday. For 500 days she lived in complete isolation underground, in a cave about 70 meters deep in the Costa Tropical area of ​​the southern Spanish province of Granada.

But why do you decide to voluntarily live in a cave for a year and a half? The overview:

The alleged test of courage has the project name “Timecave”. Researchers want to find out, among other things, whether complete isolation can lead to neuropsychological and cognitive changes. And to find out exactly this, Flamini went underground.

Flamini was led and accompanied by a group of researchers from different disciplines from the Universities of Granda and Almería – including psychologists, cavers and fitness trainers. With the collected data, they want to find out, among other things, how social isolation and disorientation can influence the perception of time, brain patterns and sleep.

Flamini lived in a tent. The team regularly provided them with a total of one and a half tons of food, water, coffee and other materials left behind in a “safe zone”. This zone was monitored 24 hours a day with a camera. That also ensured that Flamini was still fine, says speleologist Paco Morales.

According to her, Flamini has had no contact with the outside world since the start of the experiment in November 2021. She lived without a clock and without a telephone. She did have electricity and a laptop with which she could send information to the outside world but could not receive it.

Only once did the experiment have to be partially interrupted for safety reasons because a router had to be repaired. With this router, the Spaniard could have called for help in an emergency. During the break, the extreme athlete lived above ground for a week, but otherwise lived in complete isolation in a tent next to the cave entrance.

So the adventurer was cut off from what was happening in the world for 500 days. She also knew nothing about the war in Ukraine, the end of the corona pandemic or the death of Queen Elizabeth.

The time in the cave was not always easy. As her public videos show, the athlete desperately puts her hands in front of her face in a video and says, “What a horrible day. I just want to cry all the time.”

Sometimes she was very lonely, she says. In solitude she philosophized a lot. She has also read 60 books and written poems and short stories. Flamini also played sports underground or knitted. Her motivation was probably also an incentive to persevere. “I’m also doing this because I think it can help and improve[other people’s lives],” she said at a press conference on Friday.

At a great height, Flamini sometimes had to deal with a plague of flies.

Wearing a helmet, sunglasses and a big smile on her face, Flamini climbed out of her cave last Friday after 500 days. Physically and emotionally she made a good impression. The adventurer spoke of an “amazing” and “unprecedented” experience. According to Morales, she came out with “incredible vitality and strength.” There is no further information about the investigation or about Flamini’s condition.

With 500 days underground, the adventurer broke the previous world record set by Italy’s Christine Lanzoni. In 2007, she spent exactly 269 days in a cave.

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