As he settled into his sleeping bag that night, Roberto Canessa did not think about the biting cold.

He forgot, for a moment, about the terrible ``bang'' that preceded the plane's perilous crash. He ignored the hunger.

He looked out at the mountain landscape -- at the white snow, blue sky, brown mountain peaks -- he could only take in the beauty.

``I will never forget the valley,'' he said.

Canessa and 15 others survived a 1972 plane crash, 72 days in the Andean Cordillera and an 11-day trek through the mountains. They survived, in part, by using the bodies of their friends for food.

The pediatric cardiologist, now 56, recalled the experience of the Uruguayan rugby team's survival on Thursday at Columbus High School in Miami. An audience of 350 listened intently for two hours.

Organized by reachingU, a national nonprofit organization that works to improve the lives of Uruguayan mothers and children, the lecture helped raise more than $40,000. The money will be used for education, job training and healthcare.

Canessa's story begins in Montecideo, Uruguay, on Oct. 13, 1972. Canessa, then 19, was bound for a rugby tournament in Chile. Antsy after being grounded by bad weather, the team persuaded the pilot of the chartered Uruguayan Air Force plane to make the flight.

``We were very happy because we were finally going to arrive,'' Canessa said.

But then, the plane went into the clouds. It began to shake. As he comforted a scared young mother, someone asked: ``Aren't we flying kind of close to the mountains?'' And then, it happened.

``I heard this terrible bang,'' Canessa said. ``I couldn't believe what was happening. I thought, `I'm a dead man.' ''

Canessa's struggle for survival was marked by cycles of faith and crippling doubt, being pulled back from the brink by something as simple as a suitcase, a memory or the group's sense of humor.

On the night that Canessa contemplated the view of the valley from his sleeping bag, he had been trapped by the mountains for nearly two months. After hearing by radio that the rescue mission to find them had been canceled, Canessa and Nando Parrado resolved to trek to civilization.

``I was in this terrible doubt,'' Canessa said, but a friend convinced him that he was the one to make the walk. ``And then there was a click in my mind that I had the legs that could get us out of those mountains.''

Eventually, the men found the tail of the plane. In the crash, it had been torn from the fuselage, where the rest of the survivors now waited. Scattered about in the snow were the men's suitcases. Canessa found his. When he opened it, it smelled like home.

``It was like I found myself again,'' he said.

The memory of his mother helped Canessa surmount taboo and consume the remains of his friends to survive. As a young medical student, Canessa persuaded the group that the nourishment from the meat was their only chance to live.

``There was no kind of life in that place,'' he said. ``We didn't know what to eat. And someone said, `I think I'm going crazy because I want to eat the dead person.' ''

They thought of Jesus and the Last Supper. They thought whether they would want their friends to use their own bodies to survive.

And Canessa recalled his mother. She had once said that she would have no reason to live if she lost her son.

The only time Canessa seemed to accept defeat in his struggles was one night, 16 days after the crash, that an avalanche thundered down the mountain, burying them.

``I remember the silence. I tried to move my arms,'' he said. ``And then I realized, `I am dying.' ''

But he wasn't scared. An ``incredible, peaceful feeling'' took over him. And he let himself begin to slip until a friend uncovered Canessa's face, and he could breathe again. Eight others died.

``I was looking at my dead friends, and I had incredible envy,'' Canessa said. ``I thought, `You don't have to suffer any more.' ''

Canessa's faith helped him put those thoughts aside and hike 44 treacherous miles through the mountains and to eventual safety at the hands of a shepherd who called for help.

Now 37 years later, Canessa relives his harrowing experience regularly. He wants to leave audiences with several lessons, he said.

• Regular people can overcome the odds.

• One never should lose faith in God.

• A sense of humor can be life-saving.

And, he said, remember that we live in a society where we have much more than we need and do much less than we can.

``It's a contribution for people to be more grateful in life,'' Canessa said.

``I want people to say, `Thank God I'm alive.' ''

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