Florencio Avalos, the first miner to be rescued, (left), is embraced by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera after reaching the surface
There were few words, in the end, that Florencio Avalos could find to express the joy he felt when he finally reached the surface of the San Jose mine shortly after midnight. Just a smile as wide as the Atacama Desert as he stepped out of the Phoenix escape capsule and fell into the arms of the wife and two children that he’d last embraced almost seventy days ago.
It was a magnificent sight to see, this shy and exhausted man breathing fresh air he must have thought he’d never breathe again, and bear-hugging the men who had managed to bring him to the surface in one piece. When the cage painted in patriotic red, white and blue cleared the top of the escape shaft, the cheer that went up over Camp Hope might have been heard half way to the moon.
A cloud of balloons filled the freezing Chilean night sky and church bells were rung in the camp and across the nation. The joyous crowd, many of whom have been camped out at the surface as long as “Los 33” have been trapped underground, hugged each other, set up party poppers, and chanted the words they will surely be chanting for days: “Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!
Coppied by http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/chile-celebrates-as-first-miner-is-rescued-2104648.html
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