MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Andes tragedy objects found 32 years later.

An American tourist found while climbing an Argentine mountain personal objects belonging to one of the Uruguayan survivors of the air tragedy which occurred 32 years ago in the Andes.

Among the objects are a leather wallet with 12 US dollars and a Uruguayan 1,000 pesos bill, a passport, driving licence, sun glasses and the luggage claim ticket for when the aircraft arrived in Santiago de Chile, all belonging to Eduardo Jose Strauch Urioste.

Mr. Strauch is one of the 16 survivors of the Uruguayan Air Force aircraft that crashed in October 1972, in the Andean region of the Argentine province of Mendoza, next to Chile.

The objects will be handed to Strauch next week. "It reminds me of some happy moments we had up there on the mountain, spiritual moments as well as all the suffering and pain we went through," he said on the local television.

The Fokker aircraft was carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and some relatives plus other passengers, totalling 45, to Santiago, of which 29 died. Two of the survivors who decided after weeks in the snow covered mountains to look for rescue where finally found by a mountain muleteer on the Chilean side on the Andes range, two months after the tragedy.

The stranded players survived feeding on the dead kept frozen by the below zero temperatures.

The surprising find occurred at the beginning of this week when the American tourist was making a tour of the area, 4,500 metres above sea level, and a thousand metres away from the cross honouring the victims. "The objects were found intact inside a blue bag, together with a roll of film, personal papers and a wrist watch", revealed the owner of the hostel El Sosneado Edgardo Barrios who organizes horse and mule expeditions to the place.

"The mountain keeps surprising us and returning things", said Alvaro Mangino one of the survivors who was currently in San Rafael, Mendoza preparing for the climb to the cross.

Every summer several of the survivors and next of kin peregrinate to the mountain where they lost so many friends and close relatives.

More information: www.viven.com.uy