Beatriz Flamini was 40 years old when everything fell apart inside.
She was an aerobics instructor in Madrid, had an orderly life, and yet something did not add up. She left everything behind and moved to the Sierra de Gredos, where she learned to rescue people in the mountains and survive with the bare minimum. That crisis was the seed of what would come next: 500 days completely alone in a cave in Motril, Granada, 70 meters underground, without seeing the sun or speaking to anyone.
She went in at 48 and came out at 50. She read, knitted, exercised, lost track of time, and even survived a fly infestation that caused larvae to hatch inside the cave. When she finally climbed back to the surface, she did not want to leave. She said the experience had been “excellent and unparalleled”. She did not do it for fame or a record: she did it to train herself in something very few people understand — being completely alone with oneself, and not being afraid of that.