Chilean Miner: I Will Go Back

All but 2 have left hospital, headed home
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 16, 2010 7:09 AM CDT
Chilean Miner: I Will Go Back
Rescued miner Luis Urzua, top center, is welcomed home by young neighbors in Copiapo, Chile, Friday, Oct. 15, 2010.   (AP Photo/Roberto Candia)

All but two of the Chilean miners have quietly left the hospital, and being trapped for 66 days underground apparently isn't enough to stop at least one from heading back to the mines, reports the BBC. "That's my life," Omar Reygadas says. "I will go back to the mine because that is simply my job. My life is working in a mine... I love working underground and I know I am coming back."

Some of the 33 miners tell the BBC that the men have a pact to not speak publicly about their ordeal, but others are quite chatty anyway. "We were waiting for death," Richard Villarroel says, adding that before rescuers found them, the miners were "wasting away." Edison Pena, meanwhile, worries about their futures when the media goes home: "I'm afraid in three months, when the interviews are over, it may be difficult for me and my colleagues to find a job. I may end up selling sweets in the town square." (More Chilean miners stories.)

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