Video | Fisherman who survived 13 months at sea prepares to head home
Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who incredibly survived adrift by eating turtles and his urine for over a year, will be repatriated to Mexico or El Salvador and reunite with family
Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga was preparing on Wednesday for a faster and more comfortable journey home after 13 months adrift in a small fishing boat, as his mother called his rescue “a divine miracle”.
Officials in the Marshall Islands said Alvarenga would depart the tiny Pacific nation on Friday for Hawaii, before travelling on to El Salvador or Mexico.
“Most likely he will be repatriated back to El Salvador,” foreign affairs official Anjanette Kattil said.
We will make him a big meal, but we won’t feed him fish because he must be bored of eating that
“Initially we thought he was Mexican but even if he was not, the Marshall Islands would render assistance to anyone who washes up on our shores.”
Alvarenga was born in El Salvador but had lived for years in Mexico, where he says he set off on a fishing trip in late 2012 before becoming lost and drifting some 12,500 kilometres to the Marshalls in a small boat.
The 37-year-old said he survived by eating raw fish and birds as well as drinking turtle blood, urine and rainwater for 13 months, but a teenage companion named Xiguel starved to death during the ordeal.
His family, including a 14-year-old daughter named Fatima who has no recollection of the father who left for Mexico before she was born, said they were looking forward to welcoming him home.