Flight 521, 40 years later, Nando Parrado
by Manuela Cuervo
“I realized the Andes had affected me more than I ever thought possible. It changed my life dramatically.”
As soon as my flight arrived, 10 minutes later I was sitting in the conference room waiting for the 64 year old man; who many people called a hero but he didn’t consider one: Fernando Parrado. One of the sixteen Andes survivors in 1972. When we sat just in front of me i thought it was incredible that a man that passed through hell would have this ordinary face. Like, if you see him in the street you would not think that he used to be a rugby player, nor that he survived 70 days in the cordillera of The Andes. It is important to say that he survived on a diet of human flesh. As he prefers to call it instead of using the term of “cannibalism”.