Salvador Alvarenga, a fisherman who spent 438 days adrift

Salvador Alvarenga is a real shipwrecked man.His story is as prodigious as it is incredible, according to many products of a very fertile imagination.He knows what happened to this Salvadoran fisherman in 2012.

Salvador Alvarenga, a fisherman who spent 438 days adrift

Born in El Salvador, in Ahuachapan, in 1975, and in 2000 he launched into the migratory adventure: he moved to Mexico, specifically to Chiapas, to live as a fisherman.Alli would work in a small fishing village, on the beach of Costa Azul near the town of Pijijiapan, on the Chiapas coast, facing the Pacific.

A day like any other, on December 21, 2012 , left in his small boat of fiberglass of 7 meters in length accompanied by Ezequiel Cordoba , another young fisherman.Despite some storm warnings, they decided to go to the sea equally, because it was not the First storm with which he, Salvador Alvarenga, ran into.He was very skilled in fishing and in the na vegacion, but the storm reached them, and huge waves crashed into the boat while hurricane winds shook them; a few hours after leaving, and having damaged the radio, engine and GPS thanks to the storm, the boat drifted, diverting its route.

Salvador Alvarenga, a fisherman who spent 438 days adrift

As a good sailor, Salvador Alvarenga had He had taken more provisions than he needed, since on more than one occasion he had to stay on the high seas more than planned.Once the provisions were finished, and already convinced that a rescue would not be possible in the short term, he began fishing turtles, fish and traps for birds.

He could never make a fire, so the meat was always raw.They were very careful not to drink salt water, and so, at first they drank their own urine; But Salvador realized that he was very thirsty and, since it was not raining, he could not collect rainwater.He had an idea: to drink the blood of the turtles, and that he did, but the other young man, Ezekiel, refused to do so.

Four months passed, and Ezekiel's health was seriously compromised, because he refused to eat; He rebelled against that diet, even at the thought of his own death.I slowly stop eating raw meat, and if it didn't rain I didn't drink water.Until the fatal and inevitable outcome happened: that young fisherman died, and left alone Salvador Alvarenga on that marine immensity.

Nine more months passed, and he finally saw land; He once again laid a beach on January 30, 2014, at Ebon Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 12,500km from Chiapas.The American journalist Jonathan Franklin , a contributor to some newspapers such as The Boston Globe , The Guardian and The New York Times , decided to write their story and interview Salvador Alvarenga, who were present in the Marshall Islands when he was appeared and those who accompanied the fisherman during his hospitalization.The book is called Salvador: the incredible story of Salvador Alvarenga and his 438 days adrift , and in the story he tells adventure of his shipwreck, of his anguish, of his madness by being completely alone, of his despair.

Salvador Alvarenga, a fisherman who spent 438 days adrift

Recreational route of Salvador Alvarenga's boat, which sailed a distance of 12,500 km

However, and as if that were not enough, time after returning to El Salvador, to his hometown, his neighbors accused him of being a drug dealer and talk, and Ezequiel's relatives filed a lawsuit against him for cannibal, because of in no other way could he have survived so long.

In the face of all this, Salvador Alvarenga hired a lawyer, but then refused his services and hired an American law firm; The former lawyer contacted the relatives of the other young man and they have sued him for a million dollars .Before the accusations, Alvarenga decided to undergo any polygraph and psychological exams, and the results say there are no lies, that Salvador's version is true.

“Never think about cannibalism; by then he was right-handed in catching fish and turtles, and always We had a five-day supply.Hezequiel despaired, thought they wouldn't save us and didn't eat.In the end he was so weak that he couldn't even speak anymore."

Canibal or not, Salvador Alvarenga now he fears the sea and his health is not as good as before.If he ate human flesh or subsisted on turtles and fish, we will never know for sure; He survived an extreme adventure, that's right.He was at sea 438 days, on his little boat, alone.

Meet other shipwrecks, like these 5 of which you would like to know.And also these 4 cases of survival cannibalism.

Images: Gerard Van der Leun, Commons Wikimedia

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