Real Life Castaway Salvador Alvarenga Survived 438 Days Lost In Sea

Castaways have been seen in different movies, but this time, the world witness a real-life Castaway. Salvador Alvarenga, a 36-year-old fisherman, drifted more than 10,000 Km from Mexico and was found on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean after surviving 438 days lost in the sea.

José Salvador Alvarenga, a fisherman originally from El Salvador, said he left the Mexican coast in November 2012 for a two-day fishing trip and was caught in a storm, survived on a seven-meter boat, adrift, to about 15 months before landing in Ebon. With him on the boat, there was also Ezequiel Cordoba, 22 years old, to whom Alvarenga had given 50 dollars to accompany him on the fishing expedition. The young man, however, never returned home.

The two on that boat in the middle of the ocean would have survived for a few months, feeding on birds and small fish and drinking rainwater, their own urine and turtle blood. At one point, however, the 22-year-old allegedly refused to eat raw meat. For this reason, he would have become seriously ill. And before dying he would have made Alvarenga promise not to eat her body, to track down her mother and tell her what had happened. The Salvadoran said he watched over the corpse for six days, and spoke to him until he recovered from that hallucination and threw it into the sea.

 “I realized that my death would be very, very slow.” Yet, against all odds he survived, arriving on Ebon beach in overall good health and being rescued by a local couple. There are the opinions of many experts for whom it is a possible adventure. In March 2014, three months after the rescue, Alvarenga visited his traveling companion’s mother, Rosalia Rios, telling her what had happened.

However, the boy’s family claims that their son was eaten by Alvaregna to survive and they have sued the castaway hero, asking for a million dollars.