Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

by Piers Paul Read

It had taken a supreme effort of will for these boys to eat human flesh at all, but once they had started and persevered, appetite had come with the eating, for the instinct to survive was a harsh tyrant which demanded not just that they eat their companions but that they get used to doing so.

The view which met his eyes was of paradise. The snow stopped. From under its white shell there poured forth a torrent of grey water which flowed with tremendous force into a gorge and tumbled over boulders and stones to the west. And more beautiful still, everywhere he looked there were patches of green – moss, grass, rushes, gorse bushes, and yellow and purple flowers. As Parrado stood there, his face wet with tears of joy, Canessa came up behind him, and he too exclaimed with happiness and delight at the sight of this blessed valley. Then both boys staggered forward off the snow and sank onto rocks by the side of the river. There, amid birds and lizards, they prayed aloud to God, thanking Him with all the fervour of their youthful hearts for having prised them from the cold and barren grip of the Andes.

‘It was something no one could have imagined. I used to go to mass every Sunday, and Holy Communion had become something automatic. But up there, seeing so many miracles, being so near God, almost touching Him, I learned otherwise. Now I pray to God to give me strength and stop me slipping back to what I used to be. I have learned that life is love, and that love is giving to your neighbour. The soul of a man is the best thing about him. There is nothing better than giving to a fellow human being …’

There was one question, however, which Inciarte had asked him and he could not answer. Why was it that he had lived while others had died? What purpose had God in making this selection? What sense could be made out of it? ‘None,’ replied Father Andrés. ‘There are times when the will of God cannot be understood by our human intelligence. There are things which in all humility we must accept as a mystery.’

The two most sceptical about the role God had played in their rescue were Parrado himself and Pedro Algorta. Parrado had good reason, for like many of them he could see no human logic in the selection of the living from the dead. If God had helped them to live, then He had allowed others to die; and if God was good, how could He possibly have permitted his mother to die, and Panchito and Susana to suffer so terribly before their death? Perhaps God had wanted them in heaven, but how could his mother and sister be happy there while he and his father continued to suffer on earth?