A Spanish teenager who started digging a hole in his backyard after an argument with his parents, six years ago, is now the proud owner of an underground cave in his own backyard.
Andres Canto was 14 when he first headed into his backyard in Alicante, Spain, with a pickaxe, following an argument with his parents. They wouldn’t let him go put into town wearing a track suit, so he decided to stay home and let off some steam by digging a hole. The thing he hadn’t planned one was enjoying digging as much as he did. Andres found that he loved coming back to his growing hole every evening, after classes, and just expanding it little by little. He eventually brought a friend to help him with the digging, and together they turned the hole into an impressive cave.
“My parents wanted me to change clothes to go to the village, but I wanted to wear the track suit, so I could mess around in the village,” Canto told Zenger News.
“They told me I could not go out dressed like this, and I said: ‘No worries, I can entertain myself,’ and I went to the back of the property and started to dig a hole.”
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Canto and his friend put in around 14 hours of work every day, and as they added a pneumatic drill to their digging arsenal they started making real progress. Before long, they dug a sitting room and a bedroom. At first, almost everything was done by hand, with the dirt being removed by the bucket, but Andres eventually implemented a pully system
Recorrido en video!! pic.twitter.com/cV0pxeUzfh
— Kokomo (@andresiko_16) April 26, 2021
The roof is supported by arched entrances and vaulted ceilings reinforced with columns, as well as concrete walls to prevent collapses. The 20-year-old claims that the building materials required to consolidate his backyard cave only cost him about 50 euros ($60).
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Living in an underground cave does have some drawback, as Andres admits that he has to deal with an occasional flood when it rains, and that insects and snails often find their way in. However, having his own private space more than makes up for the shortcomings.
While Andres doesn’t live in the cave full-time, he does spend a lot of his free time there, as he has fitted it with wi-fi from his mobile phone, electricity, and even a heating system.
