By
Mia De Graaf
|
The Mexican fisherman who claims to have survived more than a year at sea has flown into Mexico to meet the family of his dead shipmate.
José Salvador Alvarenga, 37, was discovered in January this year, 14 months after setting sail with 23-year-old Ezekiel Cordoba Rios.
Just four months into the trip, young Rios became ill after drinking turtle’s blood to survive, and died.
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Survivor: Still-injured José Salvador Alvarenga, 37, was supported by his mother as he limped into Chiapas where he will meet the family of his shipmate Ezekiel Cordoba Rios, 23, who died at sea
From the airport, he drove to Costa Azul, where the family live. He said he will pass on Ezekiel’s dying message and answer questions about their months adrift after the engine on their wooden fishing boat broke
On Friday, the Salvadoran fisherman landed in Mexico City with his parents and lawyer, before catching another plane to Chiapas, where his journey started in December 2012.
‘I feel like a hero,’ Alvarenga told press as he limped through Chiapas Airport, still recovering from his injuries sustained at sea.
‘I don’t feel capable yet of telling what I remember.
‘When I talk about that day, I feel like I am back there in the moment when I was suffering and hurting… what I am trying to do is to forget that.
Ezekiel Cordoba Rios (pictured left) died four months into their exile at sea in a 24ft wooden boat (right)
Their engine broke and bad weather sent them 6,500 miles into the Pacific Ocean where they were stranded
Survivor: Alvarenga was far more articulate on Friday than when he first spoke to journalists. Plans are now under way for a book deal or movie to be made of his life
He called Nicolas Cordoba Cruz, Ezekiel’s father, in February but today will meet him to answer his questions
Asked about his time with Rios, he said: ‘There was nothing we could do except cry and suffer.’
The
so-called Miracle Man Of The Pacific is now en route to Costa Azul, the
coastal town where Ezekiel’s father, mother and three brothers live.
It
has emerged Alvarenga phoned his companion’s father, Nicolas Cordoba
Cruz, on February 7 for an initial conversation, and passed on part of
his companion’s dying message.
Alvarenga, who flew in with his parents and lawyer, said he will struggle to discuss those months
‘Ezekiel
told him [Alvarenga] to tell his brothers to look after their mother
and to tell me that he was going to be fine,’ Cordoba Cruz told the El
Paso Times, clutching the only two pictures he has of his son.
But, he added, there is much more to discuss in person: ‘He
asked me for forgiveness because he could not do anything for
Ezequiel.
‘Maybe authorities think that it is enough to have an explanation of what happened over the phone.
‘But that doesn’t hurt as much as the pain I feel of knowing I will not see my son again.’
When he emerged on January 30, 2014, Alvarenga told media his companion died just four months into the trip.
‘My friend,’ he said in an interview, ‘tried to drink the blood of turtles but he kept being sick because it disagreed with his stomach.’
Eventually Ezekiel died, Alvarenga said, and he had to lower the body overboard.
They had drifted 6,500 miles from Mexico into the Pacific Ocean, thrown off course by bad weather.
Despite emerging from the fishing boat with bleached hair, sunburn, and bloating, Alvarenga was deemed to be in strikingly good health by doctors – though mentally frail.
Ezekiel, his three brothers and his parents lived in Mexican border town Juarez until early 2012 when they moved to the seaside village of Chiapas to escape the town’s gang culture.
There, the young fisherman met Alvarenga and months later they were missing.
Alvarenga’s mother Maria Julia cupped his chin as he spoke to journalists yesterday in Mexico
Alvarenga emerged in January bloated, sun-scorched and frail after drifting 6,500 miles from Mexico
Five days after Cordoba Rios failed to return from his shark-fishing trip with Alvarenga, the family in Chiapas reported him missing and began searching for him, his aunt Lucia Cordoba Cruz said.
‘Our family looked for him in the sea, in other villages, always hoping to find him,’ she said, adding that their search ended about three weeks later in December 2012.
But his father, who had been sick and had several surgeries, was not told about his son’s disappearance for several more months.
‘I thought the boat had sunk in the open sea,’ he said.
Plans are now under way for a book or movie to be made about the ordeal.
Comments (13)
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John23,
Norwich,
6 hours ago
One of the most unlikely tales I’ve ever come across, but “Plans are now under way for a book or movie to be made about the ordeal” probably explains it all.
caddyb,
Royston Vasey, United Kingdom,
6 hours ago
‘I feel like a hero…’ hmmm, slightly tactless comment when you’re on your way to meet your dead friend’s family.
Budgie,
Norwich, United Kingdom,
17 hours ago
This story has run for quite a while now with doubts expressed about Alvarenga’s story. So I shall ask the same question again: If he did not drift in his boat to a small island 6500 miles from home, how did he get there?
Yaffle1,
London,
17 hours ago
His story simply is not true, but what really happened is anybody’s guess.
greysteelLSX,
Tyler, United States,
18 hours ago
When this story first broke most of the comments were very supportive about human resiliency, tremendous coping skills, and human will to survive under different circumstances. A few weeks passed and another article (same site) had the picture at the bottom with him looking disheveled and unkempt (healthy and relatively plump albeit) and the comments turned contemptuous. It was basically an unintended social experiment.
Capt Dan,
jupiter,
19 hours ago
Glad to have a follow-up, I had wondered how he was doing. I hope he does make a bunch of money from his ordeal. Though not as dramatic it reminds me of the Chilean miners rescue. Never hear any more about them either.
jacqei,
belfast,
19 hours ago
It is a truly amazing story, incredible survival of an ordinary man.
washeduprocker,
conwy, United Kingdom,
19 hours ago
If anyone believes the story of this man then they need to visit the planet Earth!
dartleyk,
austerlitz, United States,
20 hours ago
‘moved through the airport with his lawyer’? why does he need a lawyer…
Galahad,
The Meadows, United States,
20 hours ago
I don’t see how anyone could spend 14 months drifting at sea without rations, eating only what he could catch now and then, and come out as plump as he supposedly did.
2 of 3 repliesSee all replies
loopy.toons,
Market Wheaton, United Kingdom,
16 hours ago
Shhh,
Brighton, United Kingdom,
6 hours ago
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Pacific castaway limps into Mexico for face-to-face meeting with family of dead shipmate who perished during 14 months lost at sea
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