How Strong is Your Will to Survive?
Most of us will never have to ask ourselves such a question, but at only 23 years old, Nando Parrado had to.
We have all heard the story of the Uruguayan rugby team travelling to Chile by plane that met with disaster. The plane, unable to maintain its height because of severe weather conditions, collides with one of the sharp mountainous peaks. The plane is cut in two, one half plummets from the sky only to crash among the towering peaks of the Andes, while the other half—carrying survivors—hits the incline of a snow-covered mountain and dives deep into a valley. Those who survived the crash, look to the skies above, hoping and praying for any sign of rescue. With limited food supplies and limited clothing to shield them from the cold, they are forced to come face to face with the knowledge that they must act or they will die. Three brave men begin a journey—a gruelling trek that no one has ever attempted before, with only a glimmer of hope and no clear path to their destination, they set out to help their friends and save themselves. One of these men is Nando Parrado; Miracle in the Andes is his personal story.
The first few pages of the novel walks the reader through Parrado’s first moments after the crash as he wakes up and realises his gruesome predicament. He describes the cold as it first hit him, “burning his skin like acid,” making it hard to breathe, hard to move, and as a consequence even harder to live. Those first moments are terrifying, and the reader is right there with him, experiencing every chilling second. As the book progresses, Parrado reflects on his life leading up to the crash. Unlike Nando, his father was a hardworking man who worked long hours to make sure that his family could live the life that he did not. His father’s philosophy was that all the good things in life have to be earned. Parrado talks about how his father tried to teach him this lesson, but he did not listen as he was more interested in girls and rugby than having to grind out a living. Yet Parrado must have learnt this lesson; how else could he have survived what he did?
Written in the first person, Miracle in the Andes enables the reader to experience each long, excruciating step of Parrado’s journey. It is an open and honest account of a tragedy and one man’s struggle to survive. I would not recommend this book for in-flight reading! But I do highly recommend reading this book at some point in life. Miracle in the Andes is not just a story of survival; it is a story of the lengths a person will go to save a friend. The boys who were travelling to Chile to play rugby became men through their experiences. They should be thought of as heroes, an example to us all - “that anything is possible as long as you are willing to suffer.”
If this book has any lesson for us, it is perfectly expressed in the last line: “Do not waste a breath.”
