On a serious note...

In case you have been in a cave for the past few days, there was breaking news on Sunday about some Chilean miners that were trapped. I figured that this was newsworthy for Americans because of some of our recent tragedy with mines. However, this story has a happy ending....so far.

For those unaware, there is a gold and copper mine in Copiapo that had a cave in. 33 miners were trapped. They searched for them for a few days with little hope and finally located them. The miners were able to send up a note stating that they were alright (thru a borehole apparently.) However, it will take almost 4 months to drill a hole the size of a person in order to get to the guys which is insane. However, since they are 4.5 miles underground I guess this makes sense? The miners made it to an emergency shelter that has provisions and they were able to send some more food and hydration gels yesterday also.

It was big news around here and has raised concerns about drilling regulations and the lack there of in Chile (seems like a worldwide theme though lately....did they plug that oil hole yet???) Manuel told me that this mine is one of the least prominent in Chile and so it was probably cutting corners on its safety regulations. Big surprise. Countries change but people don't I guess...