Regular readers may have noticed that I haven't reported much about meats much in the past few years. And most of my dramatically weird organ meat posts, or the ones about eating unusual animals, were mostly long in the past, like 2012-15. But every now and then I find a literal fleshy product or two, as I did recently. This was the Sweet Heat flavor of beef jerky from the Wholesome Pantry brand.
Alas, the manufacturer of this jerky is one that I've covered before--the Wakefern Food Corporation, which is affiliated with the Shop-Rite grocery where I purchased it. Or, put another way, their store brand. Additionally, I've discussed edibles from Uruguay before, most recently on January 15, 2022. During which I went into some detail about fun facts about Uruguay, and about famous Uruguayans, or at least some folks with Uruguayan heritage. So, to avoid repeating myself, I'll just move on to the food itself. And then afterwards I'll talk about something hopefully morbidly compelling--the poor unfortunates who were reduced to cannibalizing their dead friends and family after a terrible plane crash in the Andes Mountains.
Whole-Some Pantry sweet heat beef jerky: Smells like regular beef jerky, in a good way. The strips were small, irregular shaped, shiny slices of reddish-brown dried beef. The texture was chewy. There was a decent spice bite. I'm only a casual beef jerky guy--I've had my share, largely for field lunches, but it's not an obsession or anything. But this beef jerky was solid. Later I mixed in some cut up pieces with some baked beans, and this was a nice pairing. Overall, I would recommend this jerky, to those who enjoy such fare.
Back in high school, between (as I recall) junior and senior year, we got an unusual task--an assigned reading list. We were kind of outraged--schoolwork in the summer?! Anyway, many or most of the books were unfortunately typical assigned reading fare--tedious reads, such as F. Scott's Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby". But, happily, at least one was an exception--"Alive," by Piers Paul Read. Which was a nonfiction account of the sixteen poor Uruguayans who survived the infamous crash in late 1972. Since they were stranded in the mountains for over 10 weeks, they unfortunately were forced to consume their dead to stay alive. Obviously, I had a lot of emotional reactions to this account. Admiration, of their heroic attempts to save themselves, by braving a plane crash, frigid temperatures, avalanches, near-starvation, etc. Horror, at what the survivors were forced to do. But also, I was intrigued, in a morbid way. This wasn't technically a true crime book, since there weren't any crimes committed, but it did help me on the way to reading such fare. I highly recommend this book. And the 1993 film about this, also titled "Alive," was pretty good. There are other movies about this event--some retellings, some documentary-style.
Just to address some specific points of the book, and the overall incident, Flight 571 was originally slated to travel from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile. (There was an overnight delay, due to weather conditions, midway through this journey.) There were 45 people on the plane--5 crew members, and 40 passengers. Most of the latter were either part of the athletic squad, or friends and family of this team. Despite what many folks report, the team was not a soccer team-- they were rugby players. I guess since soccer is the most popular sport in Uruguay, and really, South America and most of the world, this is a reasonable mistake, but it is wrong. Also, because this was supposed to be a short trip, to play one match, the passengers packed lightly. Plus, much of the luggage was lost when the rear of the plane broke off during the crash. Meaning the survivors had the following food and drink. 8 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of whiskey, 1 bottle of cherry brandy, 1 bottle of creme de menthe, a partial hip flask of whiskey, 8 bars of chocolate, 5 bars of nougat, some caramels, some dates and dried plums, 2 cans of mussels, a pack of salted crackers, one can of salted almonds, and jars of peach, apple, and blackberry jam. Later, the tail section of the plane was encountered, which provided a few more scraps of food and drink, but that was basically it. And the survivors were at about 12,000 feet above sea level, with no wildlife, nor any edible plants available. Explaining why they had to resort to consuming their dead comrades.
One tidbit in the book that particularly stood out to me was near the end, as it claimed that there was actually a hotel only 5 miles east of where the plane ended up. To explain, because of mistakes made by the pilots, the survivors (and the outside world) thought the flight was further west than it really was. Meaning the 2 guys who climbed up and out and reached populated areas, Fernando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, headed west, believing that would be the shortest route. Anyway, according to the book this hotel, which was closed for the season, was much closer, and had both shelter and supplies of canned food available. Which seems unbelievably cruel--the guys risked their lives climbing high mountains to the west, taking over a week, when there was food and shelter only a short trip away in the opposite direction. However, some online research indicates that this was probably false, or at least not as definitive. The hotel in question, the Hotel Termas el Sosneado, was actually 13 miles to the east, and had been closed for over a decade. Meaning the buildings were still there, but there wouldn't have been canned food supplies. Also, a hiker who's traveled the area around the crash site noted that there are many dangerous crevices between the crash site and the hotel. Which all suggests that heading east to the hotel might not have worked out. Ironically, the decision to head west, even if it was for the wrong reasons, might have been the best, safest choice.
