As many of you have probably heard, a mysterious man claiming to have been lost at sea for 13 months is now safely back on land. Many people are wondering how it was possible for this man to stay alive for so long given the circumstances he was facing. The man’s name is Jose Salvador Alvarenga. He claims to be 37 years old. He was finally found in his damaged boat on a remote coral atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Alvarenga is claiming that he had been living off fish and turtles he had caught with his own hands and relying on rainwater (and sometimes his own urine) to drink. Alvarenga’s story is questionable, and authorities have been looking into it. The Mexican government has confirmed Alvarenga’s identity, saying he was an El Salvador national who was living in Tonala in Chiapas state. Alvarenga, who was born in Garita Palmera in El Salvador, had been missing for quite a long time according to his family. He has a 12-year-old daughter who hardly remembers him, and his parents thought he was dead.
The man was found on an Ebon Atoll with little to no population. It was the southernmost of the Marshall Islands’ atolls. Ebon has only 2.2 square miles of land, one phone line, and no Internet service. Once found, Alvarenga was taken to Majuro where he was put into an ambulance immediatley. He was waving to the crowd that had gathered to watch, and from inside the ambulance, he gave a thumbs up.
He is now in a local hospital recovering from the incident. “He’s in much better shape than one would expect after such an ordeal,” said the U.S. ambassador of the Marshall Islands. Hopefully the man will be okay in the future and will not have any more future problems. He will certainly always have a good story to tell.