José Salvador Alvarenga was the sole survivor of a misfortunate fishing trip
A guy who made it through 15 months stranded at sea shared his amazing tale of survival, and it's totally crazy!
In 2012, José Salvador Alvarenga went on a fishing trip with a friend from Mexico. Little did he know that he would be stranded at sea for 438 days.
He had a conversation with Tom Armbruster, the ex-US ambassador for the Marshall Islands, about the difficulties he experienced while trying to survive with almost no resources.
Alvarenga had been catching sharks in Mexico for many years, but on that fateful day, everything was going to change.
Alvarenga was 33 years old when he was supposed to go fishing with a friend.
When his friend wasn't around, he hired a young day laborer named Ezequiel Córdoba, who was 22 and didn't have much experience.
At first, everything was going smoothly on the trip. But when a storm started rolling in, they chose to continue fishing.
But this wasn't a good idea.
The poor man was out at sea for over a year. (JOSE CABEZAS/AFP via Getty Images)
When they tried to go back to shore, the waves filled the engine and they ended up drifting into the sea. They got hit by a big storm and lost a lot of their equipment that was on the boat.
The storm lasted an entire week and when it finally stopped, they found themselves stranded in the middle of the ocean.
The two friends understood that they needed to use their hunting skills in a creative way in order to stay alive.
They had no food or water, so they chose to survive by eating birds' blood, turtles, and fish.
But by the time week 10 rolled around, Córdoba had passed away from eating a bird that made him sick, and he got weaker and weaker, leaving Alvarenga all by himself.
Armbruster informed The Sun that his buddy got ill and couldn't stand the bird diet, especially the bird blood.
When Alvarenga started seeing things and thought he was chatting with his friend who had passed away, he knew he had to say goodbye.
He said: “His companion stayed on board for a while.
José Salvador Alvarenga was forced to survive on turtles, fish and bird blood. (José Salvador Alvarenga)
“In fact, Mr Alvarenga spoke to him and then felt like he was going a little bit crazy, and he was buried at sea.
He mentioned that he was having a conversation with the body, and he started to feel like he was going a little crazy. It's like the body was talking back to him.
When he was all by himself on the sea, he did encounter one time when he might have been saved.
He noticed a big container on the water and signaled to the boat, but the people on the boat just waved back and kept going.
Armbruster said: “He saw a container ship go by and he signalled to it.
The guys on the ship waved, and then they just continued sailing, and you could see that it really hurt his feelings.
That might have been the moment when he lost hope in others and questioned if he would ever be able to break free from this.
After all the challenges Alvarenga faced in order to stay alive, he eventually discovered a small island, which happened to be a secluded part of the Marshall Islands.
He made it to shore on January 30, 2014, and discovered a beach house that belonged to a nearby couple. They were able to signal for assistance.
Featured Image Credit: GIFF JOHNSON/AFP via Getty Images/ELIZABETH RUIZ/AFP via Getty Image
