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An athlete from Spain spent more than 500 days in an underground cave before seeing the sun for the first time in a year and a half on Monday.
Mountain climber Beatriz Famini, who was 48 when she went into the cave and 50 when she came out, agreed to the seclusion as part of a study looking at the effects of isolation, according to researchers. She claims that while she was residing in the cave, which is situated 230 feet deep, she knit, exercised, painted, and read 60 books.
In fact, Flamini says the time went by so quickly, she easily could have stayed underground longer. "I was sleeping — or at least dozing — when they came down to get me," Flamini says. "I thought something had happened. I said, 'Already? No way.' I hadn't finished my book. I didn't want to come out.”