Man Survives 8 Days But Desert Claims Brother-In-Law

For eight days, Donald Wages battled the Mexican desert, sucking the moisture from cactuses, trying to catch a lizard to eat and watching his brother-in-law die in the heat.

He cursed the desolation of El Pinacate, a volcano park that was just another leisurely destination for him and Robert Harrison on an annual excursion.

Their visit turned tragic Oct. 22 after they stopped about 30 miles inside the park: Their jeep wouldn’t start. Wages, 61, and Harrison, 73, didn’t have a map. They relied on Harrison’s past visits and “gut instinct” as they made their way through the park. They had a gallon of water in an ice chest.

“We should not have gone forward,” Wages said. “After walking those first couple of hours, we should have returned to the Scout, where we had more ice and water. Every day we would realize the stupid things we had pulled off the day before, and then we got to the point of no return.”

Harrison, from Rye, Colo., died on Oct. 27.

When Wages was rescued three days later by the Mexican Park Service only his heart and brain were fully functioning. He left the hospital Monday.

During the ordeal, Wages cut open cactuses for nourishment, but a lack of rain left them mostly dry.

“I couldn’t even find a snake to eat. I tried to catch a lizard, but the damn things were too fast,” he said.

Wages said Harrison died in the outdoors he loved. “He was in his glory,” Wages said. “I’m just sorry that cactus was his last meal, that his bed was lava rock.”