I just finished reading Nando’s book about his journey in the Andes and I highly recommend it for its honest retelling of those 72 days, and his personal experience dealing with them.
I wanted to share some quotes that truly made me appreciate his and Roberto’s friendship even more. He spares no words to define Roberto’s stubborn, competent and unique personality and that’s how you see they’re truly brothers.
“After seeing how Arturo and Rafael suffered at night as they lay on the floor of the plane (and bellowing at them fiercely to stop their pathetic moaning), Roberto spent hours the next morning fashioning the swinging hammocks that gave those two injured boys some relief from their pain. It was not compassion, exactly, that spurred him to do these things, it was more a sense of duty. He knew his gifts and abilities, and it simply made sense to him to do what he knew no one else could do.”
“But more than anything I wanted him with me simply because he was Roberto, the most determined and strong-willed person I had ever known. If there was anyone in our group who could stand up to the Andes through sheer stubbornness alone, Roberto was the one. ”
“Roberto was Roberto, on the field or off, and even in the middle of a hard-fought match, he refused to be told what to do.”
It reassured me that Roberto was becoming his grumbling self again.
“Roberto,” I said, “can you imagine how beautiful this would be if we were not dead men?” I felt his hand wrap around mine. He was the only person who understood the magnitude of what we had done and of what we still had to do. I knew he was as frightened as I was, but I drew strength from our closeness. We were bonded now like brothers. We made each other better men.”
“Roberto stood beside me. I saw the fear in his eyes, but I also saw the courage, and I instantly forgave him all the weeks of arrogance and bullheadedness. […]
Roberto nodded. “You and I are friends, Nando,” he said. “We have been through so much. Now let’s go die together.”
“He was forcing himself forward now through stubbornness and the sheer power of his will. As I watched him, I knew I had been right in choosing him as my traveling companion.”
“But no one has been a better brother to me than Roberto Canessa, my partner in that long trek through the Andes.”
“In that moment, neither of us trusted that we had any kind of future, but we did, and more than thirty years later I am proud to say that I am still best friends with Roberto, who has only grown more resourceful, more confident, and, yes, more hardheaded with the passage of time.”
I tease him mercilessly about his ego, but I would not have him any other way.
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