Climbing Trail

Tragedy Andes Part 28 (End)

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After celebrating our meeting, they brought us hot soup, cheese and chocolate. As the medical team examined our six friends who had just arrived, I met up with the Garcia commander and asked when our friends who were still on the mountain would be picked up. He explained that it is very dangerous to fly at night.

Rescue must wait for the next day. But he reassured me by saying that the medical team and the rescue team that were on the mountain would definitely take good care of them.

After we finished eating, we all got into the helicopter and flew towards the military headquarters near the city of San Fernando. A team of doctors and paramedics had been there in an ambulance waiting. The ambulance cars were escorted by motorized police, and within ten minutes we had reached St. Hospital. John of God in San Fernando.

The medical staff of the hospital greeted us in the parking lot with pushchairs. Some of our friends do need it, but I told the paramedics that I could walk on my own. After crossing the Andes, I won't let them take me for the few remaining meters.

They took us to a small, clean room, then removed the dirty clothes from my body. They threw my dirty clothes into the corner of the room and I just stared at the sweater, jeans, and pantaloons that had been my second skin. I felt relieved to have taken off all my clothes, feeling like leaving them as my past.

I was taken to the bathroom and bathed in warm water. I felt hands washing my hair and a soft cloth cleaning my dirty body.

After they finished, they dried my body with a soft towel, then I looked at myself in a large mirror in the bathroom. I was stunned when I saw myself. Before the plane crash, I was a trained athlete, but now there was not a single muscle protruding from my body. My ribs, hips, and shoulders protrude out from the surface of the skin, my arms and legs look thin so that the elbows and knees bulge out.

The nurse pulled me from the mirror and put me in clean clothes, then led me to bed and started checking on me, but I asked them to leave me alone for a while.

After they all left the room, I felt happy in the comfort, cleanliness, and peace of this small room. I lay my body on the bed, feeling the warmth of the soft bedsheet. I let myself sink slowly, I survived, I'm going home. I took a deep breath and exhaled it very slowly.

Breathe once more, we always say it when we are on the mountain, to encourage each other when we feel hopeless. As long as you breathe, you are alive. On the mountain, every breath is a struggle.

For seventy-two days in the Andes, each of our breaths was filled with fear. Now, finally, I can breathe with relief as usual. Again and again, I filled my lungs with air, then exhaled very slowly, unhurriedly, and in every breath I whispered to myself in amazement. I'm still alive! I'm still alive!

Suddenly my calmness was interrupted by a noise from outside my room, and it sounded like a sound of panic.

"Calm down!" Grunts some men. "No one's allowed in this room."

A woman's voice sounded. "My sister is here she screams. "I have to see him! Please!"

Then, I stepped out into the hallway and saw my sister, Graciela who was pushing some hospital attendants. I called out to him, and he immediately cried when he saw me.

Then, we hugged each other, my heart filled with love as I hugged her. She came with her husband, Juan, her eyes teary, and for a moment the three of us just hugged, without saying anything.

At the end of the hallway, in a dim light, I saw the figure of Father. I walked up to her and hugged her, then I lifted her body.

"Papa, look," I whispered into his ear as he lowered his body back, "I'm still holding you up."

He tightened his arms, touched me,

convinced him I was alive. I hugged her for a very long time, feeling her body tremble gently as she cried. For a moment you were just silent. Then with her head pressed against mine, she whispered, "Mommy? Suzy?"

I answered him silently, and he was a little slow as he understood.

Then, Graciela approached the two of us and led us back into my room. They gathered around my bed, I told the story of my life in the mountains. I told him about the plane that crashed, about the cold, about my fear, about the long journey I had with Roberto.

I told her how Mom died, and that I had tried to warm Susy before she died. Dad frowned as I told him about Susy, then I told him clearly all her suffering, he would never feel alone and he died in my arms.

Graciela sobbed softly as I told her a story. He never took his eyes off me. Dad sat by my bed, speechless, listening, nodding his head, with a smile full of sadness.

After I finished telling the story, all fell silent until Dad dared to say.

"How did you survive, Nando?" He asked, "Weeks of life without food"

I was honest with him and told him that we survived by eating the flesh of the dead. But the look on his face did not change.

"You did what you had to do." Father said in a stammering voice. "I'm happy, you're finally home.

I wanted to tell her a lot, that I thought about her all the time, that her affection was my guide. But there must be plenty of time to tell it. Now I want to feel the pleasure of regrouping with them, the mixed feelings.

For the first time, I found it hard to believe that this moment, the moment I always dreamed of came true. My mind moved slowly, and my feelings were flat. I felt neither joy nor victory, only comfort and peace. There were no words that could express my feelings, so I just sat in silence.

Then, we heard voices of joy from the hospital hallways, voices from the families of our friends as they reunited with their children. Then Graciela got up and closed the door of my room, and in the closed room, I shared a miracle, reunited with my family.

The next day, December 23, eight of our friends who were still in the mountains were flown to Santiago, where they were treated at a hospital called Posta Centrale. The doctors decide to treat Javier and

Roy they focus more on Roy who has abnormalities in his blood content so that it can harm his heart but other friends do not need to be treated, he said, they were transferred to the Sheraton San Cristobal Hotel and reunited with their families.

That afternoon, eight people were at St.'s Hospital. John was transferred to Santiago. Alvaro and Coche, two of the weakest, were treated at Posta Centrale, while the others were taken to the Sheraton Hotel. We all finally got together again alive.

.........

Forty years have passed. Every December 22, we gather to remember the day we were saved.

Gustavo runs a large chemical company, and he also serves as President of Uruguay Chemical Association. He is divorced and has four sons.

CARLITOS PAEZ

His behavior is impolite, but affectionate. Carlitos works as an employee at a public relations firm in Montevideo. Her newfound pleasure is playing with her baby grandson, Justine.

ALVARO MANGINO'S

One of the youngest among us. He is now the father of four children. He lived for a few years in Brazil, but this year he reunited with us in Montevideo.

INCIARTE

Coche is now a livestock entrepreneur and the largest supplier of milk, butter and cheese in Uruguay. From his marriage to his childhood friend, Soledad, he had three children.

EDUARDO STRAUCH

In the Andes, he and his cousin held the leadership after Marcelo died. He is still the same as his old self, quiet and calm, but his words are always precious to hear. Eduardo and his wife had four children. He was a successful architect.

DANIEL FERNANDEZ

Now Daniel runs a company in the field of computers and technology. He also joined the Banco political party. Every time they met Roberto, who was a bigot in the Colorado party, they would argue and attack each other. But the end of the debate always ends with a warm hug.

PEDRO ALGORTA

He lives in Argentina and works as a manager at a beer and beverage processing company. He and his wife have three children.

BOBBY FRANCOIS

In the Andes, he was the most resigned. If we die, die, he said often. Now Bobby is the owner of the farm. He has five children.

JAVIER METHOL

After mourning Liliana's death for years, Javier finally meets and marries his second wife, Ana Maria. He is now retired from his last job as an executive at a tobacco company.

ANTONIO 'TINTIN' VIZINTIN

Who bravely climbed the mountain with me and Roberto, has faced many trials in his life. His first marriage ended in divorce, his second wife tragically died. He worked as a chemical importer. Tintin still lives in Carrasco, but he's a loner, and lately we rarely meet him.

ROY HARLEY

Roy is now an engineer at a paint company. He lives in Montevideo with his wife and three children.

PANCHO DELGADO

Now he is a famous lawyer. He married Susanna, who bore him four children.

MONCHO SABELLA

He never married. Moncho worked as a real estate developer and with Fito Strauch worked together to breed ostriches.

FITO STRAUCH

Fito lives outside the city where he owns and manages a successful farm. He has three children with his wife, Paula.

SERGIO CATALAN

Sergio Catalan, a Chilean farmer who first saw me and Roberto in the mountains, whose speed and agility helped us and saved the lives of fourteen other young men, technically not a survivor. But obviously he was part of our family, and we kept in touch with him throughout the year, visiting in his village in Chile, or inviting him to MonteVideo to visit us, courteous, and very dignified who rode his horse for ten hours to guide the rescue team to pick us up in Los Maitenes. la lived a simple life, spending weeks in the mountain meadows, he said, accompanied only by his dog, shepherded cows and sheep. Sergio and his wife have nine children.

What is impressive is that a shepherd as simple as that has managed to send most of their children to college and watch them all do well in work and marriage.

In March 2005, Sergio's wife Virginia invited me to attend their fiftieth wedding anniversary. It will be a surprise for Sergio, he said he would not tell Sergio that we were coming.

We agreed, and the day before the celebration, Roberto, Gustavo, and I, along with all our families, set out down the narrow cobbled road to the village where Sergio lived. The feet of the Andes Mountains were stretched dry into a view as we climbed slowly, then saw the figure of someone riding a horse. He was wearing the traditional clothes of a Chilean shepherd. Jackets, pointy boots, and wide hats.

"That's Sergio!" Someone exclaims.

We pull over. Me, Roberto, and Gustavo got out of the car and walked up to the horseman. At first he suspected us, thinking we were strangers for the first time, but when he saw me and Roberto, his eyes grew bigger and teary. We hugged again after forty years had passed.

End.

How friends, struggling on the iceberg for seventy-two days by relying on the dead bodies of his friends.

May this story be an inspiration for us, to always love our family. Because family is everything.

The author apologized if there was a wrong word. See you at the other climbing story. Yea!!!👋