Roy Harley, survivor of the Andes tragedy, motivational coach in prisons and businesses

– What are you talking about in the discussions?

-In our case, that of a group of young guys with all the adversity of the environment. I focus it positively on helping people, from villas to jails and businesses. There are more people than we think who are suffering in silence. Like all history, it has its good sides. I think ours helps to give hope to move forward.

– Like a story of conquering?

Yes Sometimes I find it hard to believe that it was me who was there. I had to stay another day, 73 in total. It's a lot of time. We were lost. We did not know where we were and people did not know we were still there.

-How did they come to that?

-The fall of the plane was due to human error. The plane was perfect. The pilot, which cost him his life, trusted and did not follow the existing protocols. I have had many hours of flying and crossings of the mountain range. But he did not consider the wind against it. When he realized that it was late. He decided to turn around to go down and we landed at 4000 meters altitude.

– How was that moment?

-I am 20 years old, it was my first flight by plane. I was very excited to leave the country with my teammates to play a rugby match. I was suddenly in the middle of the mountain range with 18 dead. I had never seen a dead person in my life. In full happiness, life struck us without understanding what happened.

-What did you think?

-If hell exists, it was hell. I was standing in the middle of the snow, dressed in a shirt, frozen and surrounded by disorder: blood, dead, very hurt people. Not knowing what to do What happened after the accident and the first night in the mountain range was terrible. Shouts, in complete darkness, all stuck in the fuselage, tight, between all the bodies.

-And it was only the beginning?

-The days pbaded. We had ups and downs. Our spirits fell when our companions died. We knew that he was constantly talking about the case. For a Spica radio, transistors with a leather case and four AA batteries – which I managed to fix with aircraft cables and aluminum irons to make an antenna – we listened to Uruguayan radio stations. The radio helped us keep our spirits up.

– They hoped that they were going to get them?

– Yes, until October 23, 1972. It was the tenth day. We left very early and heard the news: "Any search for the Uruguayan plane lost in the mountain range is suspended". They also indicated that it was felt that in February, with the thaw, the search for the wreckage would resume. I felt that for the world he was dead, that they were turning their backs on us.

– How do you perceive it now?

– In fact, it was a very good thing. Because we stop waiting for others to save us and we take the initiative to leave by our means. It was terrible to hear, because we cried, we got angry, but we started to give strength. We decided to show the world who we were. Many times, I wonder how our story would have been without this news. We would have continued to wait until we died one by one.

– It was the hardest thing of all this time?

-For me the worst was the uncertainty.

– The lack of certainty?

– of course. The worst of all was not the hunger, nor the cold nor the thirst that we suffer. We could not do water, it was very cold. And eating snow is not the same thing. Many days we have been dehydrated. Also disoriented. We did not know where to go, or if we were going to be alive the next day. When an avalanche arrived, eight people died and we spent three days under the snow. I had changed seats with my intimate friend just ten minutes before the avalanche. He covered the snow and I survived. Not knowing who would die later was the worst thing to live there.

-How did you manage it?

-Evening evening, I focused on my family's routine. When we fell asleep, I tried to imagine what was going on at my place. I thought about what my parents and my five brothers did. The only thing that made me desperate, was that they thought I was dead.

-Is it difficult to sleep?

We were all still cuddled, dirty. I dreamed that I could lie down on a bed with white sheets. I was also dreaming of opening a faucet and letting a stream of water flow. Today, I really enjoy it all.

– How was coexistence in the mountains?

-There was everything. I am quite agitated, I had a zapatazo in a fight. We shouted. But we stayed together because it was the only way to survive. Each has badumed a role. We had a team. We all work very hard on what we have done because our lives are gone.

– You had to die?

-We were dying little by little. The first 15 days we were eating nothing. In the plane, there were only two nougats, three jars of jam and chocolate, which we rationed with scissors of one millimeter. There were no roots on the glacier. The only thing was rocks and snow. We try to eat even the soles of shoes. We tried the tea with cigarettes, which we had in quantity, but it was disgusting. We had only water. The pee in the snow had fluorescent orange air. It was because the liver had treated its own muscles. We consume ourselves.

-Up to what they think that there might be a way to save themselves …

-When the time came to die, it was necessary to make the decision to use the body of our companions. It was a very simple step. Because we had arrived very low in the life of a human being. We had no other way of surviving without energy. This has been solved without putting pressure on anyone. It was unanimous. We made a pact of honor: "If everyone died, his body was at the disposal of his companions."

-How did they do?

-We asked medical students to take care of cutting the bodies and removing the meat. It was not easy with the means we had, like a dull knife, glbades and badges. We do not use all bodies. But it is the salvation that has allowed us to reach the living day.

-What did you feel when you saw the cover on it?

-It sometimes hurts me that people do not call us back anything anymore because they used the bodies of our friends and not because of the camaraderie of those days. At first, I struggled to accept the film and the book, for the death of my best friends. Do not forget that 16 survived because 29 others died. It's a very difficult story and you must have a lot of respect for the mothers of the deceased. Until today, those who are still suffering because they could not see their children dead.

– Could bodies come back to be buried?

Yes In the case of Nando (
Fernando Parrado), in addition to the shock of the accident, he lost his loved ones. He had asked us to put aside his remains. But the day he left for the expedition to the west, next to
Roberto Canessa and
Antonio Vizintin, we barely said goodbye with hugs and weeping came back to us. We think he was repentant. He came back and said, "Boys, if the time comes, you have to use the bodies of my mother and my sister, I allow them." He did not need to say it because we were going to do it anyway. In fact, what he did, it's remove the guilt. He had a great size.

– And dueling, he also came to walk in the mountains?

-Nando was not a player of extraordinary strength, but he had a mental strength. In humans, the strength of the head is much greater than that of the muscles. I believe that the death of the mother and the three days spent in a coma with the sister, embraced in her arms until her death, motivated her to get out of there so as not to leave her father alone. And just as he was walking for ten days and crossing the entire mountain range, he would have continued on his way to the Pacific. He was unstoppable.

-And what did you learn from all this?

-I found it hard to understand why we saved those who saved us and why those who died are dead. It has been eating my head for a long time. While we were in the mountain range, we did not have time to mourn our friends. I decided to remember the good things of the accident, not the bad ones. There are many positive things.

– what what?

-First of all, the desire to live. We were healthy people in the head who wanted to live. The human being has greater power than expected. When you press him against the wall, he has a great ability to stand up and fight. Even if we miss each other, there is always an immense strength in us. Another important thing was the attitude, which makes the difference between life and death.

– How was the new beginning?

– (laughs) It was beautiful. We met the helicopter at Los Maitenes, where he was refueled because he could not bear any weight. There first appeared dad, then mom. It was awesome. Hard to express with words. I felt that I wanted to kiss everyone, forgive everyone. The only thing I wanted was to thank you for being alive, because we came to think that we would never get out of there.

-What did you take from memory?

-It was 63 dollars folded in the pants. I had them until the day they saved us. It has even been said that we burn them to catch the cold, but that is not true. Eventually, I gave them to my parents so that they would buy clothes in Chile because I had nothing.

-How long did it take you to recover?

-Very little. I left with 38 kilos on December 23rd. I reached the point where the body had lost the ability to digest food. I was in critical condition for 15 days. On January 15, I returned to Uruguay and started earning a kilo a day. In April, I resumed my studies and in May, I still played rugby.

– You never stopped?

-I have always loved the sport. As a boy, he played rugby a lot. After my marriage, at age 24, I trained for marathons and cycling. I have never had the pbadion of a sport alone, but I liked being fit.

– That's why you took the torch in Rio de Janeiro?

It was one of those boy dreams. It was fascinating to see those who carried the torch at the Olympics. In 2012, at an annual work meeting, I met sports journalist Quique Wolff. In his speech, he said that he had brought the torch of this year's London games. Finally, I approached him and asked him to tell me how he had done it. Then I proposed it.

-C & # 39; was easy?

-I am a fighter for what I want. I have therefore presented my case before the Olympic Committee of Uruguay. At first, it was very difficult because I met a lot of corporatisms and bureaucracies. I fought until I thought I would lose and I could not do it because of the lack of space for my country. But a month ago, they called me on the phone to let me know that I had been named the first Uruguayan in history.

-It was worth it?

"It's a very nice satisfaction that I shared with my family and my friends. When I told people who I was and why I was there, they were crying. Back in Uruguay, I gave the torch to my grandchildren for them to remind me.

– How do you remember the place of the accident?

-In 2017, ESPN called me to go to the date of the plane crash. At first I said no, but they convinced me when they told me that I was the only survivor to be able to do it. In the end I went with the
Benegas brothers, two Argentine mountaineers. We wear the best equipment. We could not do it. We were caught in a terrible snowstorm. They could not believe what we had done to survive with just the rugby leather shoes and cotton socks.

-Is it a miracle?

-The only reason was youth. And because we were all together to take off from the cold, cramped in the plane.

– Are you still together?

– It's been several years. We all grew up and maintained a strong bond, even though we went in different ways. We live a very intimate experience and we are more than blood brothers. When things are crowded together, we are together. Because at the end of life, there is only what one cultivates in time: family and friends. And we must not lose them.