Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read l Summary & Study Guide (2 page)

On the fourth day many of the
injured people showed signs of healing. One survivor,
Carlitos
Paez
, began talking about hiking out of the cordillera.
He was unprepared to do so, and the other survivors told him this, but his
comments showed a turn in
thier
thinking.
Carlitos
Paez
also commented that
he'd eat the pilot's muscle as food if he had to because he blamed them for
crashing the plane.
Carlitos
tested his abilities on
October 17th when he and a companion,
Numa
Turcatti
, set out on an exploring mission. They found the
conditions treacherous and returned to the plane. The overall result was
demoralizing. This was made worse by another loss- Susana
Parrado
died during the night.

Section Two
Summary and Analysis

After losing touch with the
Fairchild, the air traffic control service contacted the
Servicio
Aereo
de
Rescate
(SAR). A
search led by the interim commanders of the SAR, Garcia and Massa, commenced.
They began searching along the last reported path of the plane, focusing on the
pilot's comments about seeing
Curico
. As the search
team approached
Curico
, they encountered a snow storm
and had to return to Santiago. The following day the commanders reviewed all
the available information and changed the focus of the search. They concluded
that, based upon its departure time, the plane could not have been above
Curico
the way the pilot reported. The refined search area
surrounded the
Tinguiririca
,
Sosneado
and
Palomo
mountains. The mountains rose 15,000 feet
and the valleys in-between were steep and filled with deep snow. The top of the
plane would be difficult, if not impossible to see. Even if it was not buried
in snow, it was painted white. The only way to improve visibility was to fly
low, but the lower altitudes were increasingly turbulent. The SAR officials had
little hope of finding anyone alive but were obligated by international law to
search for ten days. While the SAR officials searched, word of the crash
spread. Rumors were rampant, not accurate and conflicting. The concerned and
confused family members began to arrive in Santiago. They asked questions and
increased pressure on the SAR.

At the heart of the rumors was a
radio owned by a man named Rafael Ponce de Leon. Rafael Ponce de Leon lived in
Carrasco. He was friends with Marcelo Perez. They were Old Christian team
mates, but Ponce de Leon had opted not to take the trip to Chile. Ponce de Leon
felt awful about the crash. He, too, was worried for his team mates. His way of
being proactive was to shuttle information back and forth (via his radio) from
the families in Montevideo to the officials in Santiago. In this way, the
parents stayed connected to the search, and the information they received was
accurate. Some family members, including the father of
Carlitos
,
Carlos
Paez
Vilaro
, were
personally involved in the search. The search was expanded to include not just
aircraft, but people on the ground searched as well. Chilean military police,
called
carabineros
, and volunteers known as
Andinists
hiked in search of survivors. All were forced to
turn around due to poor weather conditions and the aircraft were grounded. The
relatives were discouraged by the difficult weather and lack of progress. Back
at home,
Madelon
Vilaro
requested the help of
a water
diviner to find her son.
The water diviner indicated an area near the
Tinguiririca
volcano.
Madelon
passed this information along,
through Ponce de Leon's radio, only to be told by Carlos
Paez
that that area had already been searched without results.
Madelon
next visited a clairvoyant named Gerard
Croiset
for
advice. Rosin
Strauch
, mother to Adolfo (
Fito
)
Strauch
and aunt of Eduardo
Strauch
, placed her faith in the Virgin of
Garabandal
to whom she began praying regularly. Still other
parents found it impossible to hope and resigned themselves to grief. Every
evening they gathered in the basement of Ponce de Leon's home and crowded
around his radio hoping for news of their loved ones. They were greatly
disappointed to hear that on October 21 the search was called off for lack of
results. The SAR had only searched for eight days, two of which were not
productive due to poor weather conditions.

Section Three
Summary and Analysis

Section three opens on the ninth
day of the survivors' struggle. In the morning, they carry Susana's body out of
the cabin. They move through the monotonous tasks of melting snow and tidying
the fuselage. It went unsaid, but the survivors could see their own
deterioration mirrored in the faces of their companions. As a group, they were
becoming irritable and depressed. Marcelo Perez and Daniel Fernandez, two of
the older members of the group, feared for their younger friends. With a few
exceptions, the majority of those who were not irritable were instead nearing
hysteria. To buoy their spirits, Marcelo tried to remain upbeat. This was an
extension of his job as team captain. His positive attitude and reputation of
fairness gained him respect amongst the others, but he, too, faced sorrow in
the evenings. Not only did he miss his family, but he felt responsible for
their losses. As team captain, he had rallied for their trip and made the
arrangements. Marcelo was comforted by his close friend, Eduardo
Strauch
, who assured him that he was blameless. Also
present were Eduardo's cousins
Fito
(Adolfo)
Strauch
and Daniel Fernandez. They were more than just
friends; they were tied by familial bonds and formed a tight support group for
each other.
Echavarren
suffered from a leg broken in
many places but remained upbeat and confident. The only time he seemed to
waiver was if someone accidentally came into contact with his injured leg.
Enrique
Platero
was also a pillar of strength. He had
a gaping stomach wound but was thankful to be alive and responded to anyone's
request for help. Gustavo
Nicolich
was the organizer.
He distracted the men and kept them on track with their many chores. He
encouraged songs, games and nightly prayer led by
Carlitos
Paez
.
Liliana
Methol
was beautiful inside and out. She was truly
compassionate and took on the duty of nurse to her husband, Javier, and all of
the other survivors as well. She was the only surviving woman and the younger
players looked to her for solace as a mother figure.

Day ten was bleak. The men had
rigged a transistor radio and could hear fragments of news reports. The news
was mostly related to the middle class strike against the government of the
Chilean president,
Allende
. Unfortunately, the
transistor radio was unable to transmit messages. Many of the survivors
decreased the frequency of their visits outside the plane. Starvation left them
without
energy,
and, aside from checking the news,
there wasn't much to do anyway. Without nutrition they lacked balance and felt
faint. Their waistlines were shrinking and their skin becoming wrinkled. Their
meager food sources, even though rationed, were running out. The boys were used
to eating often to sustain their athletic activities and the few calories they
now consumed daily
was
a tease to their systems. They
started thinking about other food sources. On exposed rocks they found a few
lichens and tried eating those, but they were disgusting and they were not
plentiful enough. In small groups there had been talk of eating the bodies of
the deceased, but it was
Canessa
who finally made the
subject a group discussion. He made a sound argument that with every day they
became weaker and also less likely to be rescued. He reasoned that they needed
to feed themselves to increase their strength and hike out of the mountains. He
also put forth the ideas that God wanted them to survive, but they had to help
themselves, and that the souls of the deceased had already left their bodies.
In order to eat what remained they had to distance themselves from the
personalities they loved and associated with the bodies.

At that time, twenty-seven people
still survived. They unanimously decided that the bodies should be eaten as
necessary to survive. Not all of the survivors could bring themselves to partake,
but none were so opposed to the idea that they would object to the others
eating. Furthermore, most agreed that if they were next to die they would
donate their body to the cause. Despite this pact, it was difficult to do. To
cut the meat from the bodies they used broken pieces of glass; it was hard to
ignore the reality of what they were doing. Once the meat was separated from
the bodies, it was easier to consume from a mental perspective, but it was
still not palatable. The survivors began with small pieces the size of matches
and fought off revulsion
lt
as they forced themselves
to swallow the unlikely source of food.
Canessa
was
the first to do so. He felt that if he could succeed in this task, surely he
would survive.

The following day the survivors
heard on the transmitter radio that the rescue search had been called off.
Nicolich
summoned up the courage to tell the others. He
described it as good news and proclaimed that he was confident they could walk
out of the cordillera by their own strength. Their only hope now was to build
their reserves through continued cannibalism. Marcelo and Delgado lost all
optimism with this news and their previous role as leaders diminished. With
only one possibility left for returning to a life in the outside world, the
survivors focused on how and when they would escape.
  
As soon as he heard the news,
Parrado
announced his intention to hike to the west. The
others restrained him because they knew his words were stronger than his
body--he had barely survived the crash. They agreed that the fittest among them
should set out on a mission to climb the nearest mountain and assess their
position and, if possible, locate the rest of the plane.
Zerbino
,
Turcatti
, and
Maspons
were
selected for this task and set off immediately. While they trekked, the others
ate. Eating human flesh remained difficult to do, yet everyone except
Liliana
and Javier had been persuaded. The meat was easier
to eat when dried in the sun and Pedro
Algorta
had
likened it to communion in the Catholic
church
, a
concept with which they were all familiar.
 
The three
expeditionaries
were finding the
hike draining. They were not dressed appropriately, nor did they have any
equipment to help them gain traction. Every twenty steps or so, they required
rest. At the end of the day they were only half way up the mountain and
discussed their choices. The three decided to spend the night at that altitude,
hidden behind the protection of rocks, and resume their hike in the morning.
The night was unbearably cold, and they pounded on each other to keep their
blood circulating. Much to their surprise, they survived the night. While
hiking the next day, they found debris from the plane but not its tail. The
landscape was white and barren, and the snow reflected off it at all angles,
partially blinding
Zerbino
. Upon their return it was
obvious that one day and one night had nearly killed the three strongest men.
Realizing that neither a rescue nor a hike out for help would occur quickly,
Javier and, lastly,
Liliana
, consented to eating the
meat despite their aversion to it.

Section Four
Summary and Analysis

The parents of the rugby players
were appalled that the government had called off the search after so little
effort. They increased their own search efforts in response. Gerard
Croiset
was well known as a clairvoyant and had a few
hundred successful engagements to his credit. He never asked for payment and
was happy to help when his powers allowed it. When
Madelon
Vilaro
tried contacting him she instead reached his
son, Gerard
Croiset
Jr., who was also said to have
clairvoyant powers. While reviewing an aeronautical map of the area,
Croiset
Jr.
felt
that the copilot,
not the pilot, had been flying the plane when one of its engines broke down. He
had veered off course to make an emergency landing and crashed by a lake near
Planchon
. He said the plane lay with its nose crushed and,
most importantly, there were survivors. This news was carried to
Paez
Vilaro
in Chile through
Ponce de Leon's use of radio communication. The parents agreed to bring this
information to the attention of the Uruguayan Air Force and filed a formal
request for a Uruguayan aircraft to search the area. Their petition was
refused.