San Salvador, El Salvador (CNN) -- After more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean, and after eight years away from his hometown, Jose Salvador Alvarenga is home.
Around
8:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. ET), after arriving on a flight from Los Angeles,
Alvarenga was wheeled before a swarm of reporters in the airport terminal in El
Salvador's capital of San Salvador. Looking tired and weak, he appeared unable
to muster any words after being handed a microphone.
Alvarenga
waved meekly -- eliciting applause from travelers and airport employees who'd
lined up to see him -- and sat quietly in his wheelchair as people shouted out
and cameras flashed. Then, he put his hand on his head as he was wheeled away.
His
next stop was to be a hospital, where Violeta Menjivar, El Salvador's vice minister
of health, said Alvarenga's health will be monitored.
If
and when everything checks out, presumably, Alvarenga will be free to roam his
native El Salvador.
But
it's understandable if, when that happens, it will seem like a strange place.
His
miraculous -- some say unbelievable -- story has captured the attention of so
many. Even where he was found -- in an atoll in the Marshall Islands that is as
secluded a locale as they come, set deep in the Pacific Ocean some 2,000 miles
from Papua New Guinea and 2,400 miles from Hawaii -- Alvarenga's rescue and
recovery attracted a crush of media. It got so intense he moved to an
undisclosed location to avoid the hubbub, sources familiar with his care told
CNN on Saturday.
Irene
Sanchez, a spokeswoman for El Salvador's foreign ministry, said Alvarenga
"felt harassed" over the last two weeks, after having spent so many
weeks alone.
Now
that he's going home, she said Tuesday that he's looking forward to spending
time with his parents and daughter, as well as eating pupusas, a traditional
Salvadoran dish.
As
to all the attention from everyone else, Sanchez said, "He doesn't know
what awaits him."
"He
doesn't know what it is like to be a celebrity, or how to respond to all the
media attention."
His
odyssey began in late 2012 when, he said, he left Mexico on what was supposed
to be a one-day fishing expedition. But Alvarenga said he and a 23-year-old
companion were
blown off course by northerly winds and then caught in a storm.
Eventually,
the pair lost use of their engines and, according to Alvarenga, had no radio
signal to report their plight.
Four
weeks into their drift, his companion died of starvation because he refused to
eat raw birds and turtles, Alvarenga said. Eventually, he threw the body
overboard.
Alvarenga's
next interaction with humans came January 30. It was then that islanders on
Ebon, a remote atoll on the already remote Marshall Islands, spotted the
mysterious visitor.
As
he inhaled pancake after pancake, Alvarenga recounted what he'd gone through.
Soon after, images of the bearded, bedraggled castaway began circulating
worldwide.
His
claims about his time stranded at sea garnered widespread skepticism about how
he could survive the more than 6,000-mile trek across the open ocean.
But
officials in the Marshall Islands have said repeatedly that they have no reason
to doubt the story.
His
story is resonating in his hometown, the coastal Salvadoran village of Garita
Palmera.
Balloons
and ribbons hang across the house where Alvarenga's family lives there, and a
"Welcome Home" banner is strung up outside on a palm tree archway. A
heart-shaped decoration made by his niece says, "May God bless you."
Now
clean-shaven and gaining strength, Alvarenga is expected to end up back in Garita Palmera for his
homecoming.
As
she awaited his return this week, his mother, Julia Alvarenga, said she'd
been praying for him since his last visit eight years ago.
"That
was the only hope I had all this time," she said. "I would pray to
God, and I won't lie to you, I was crying; but I never lost my faith."
El Fortin, Mexico
(CNN) --
Roselia Rios cried as cameras rolled and headlines trumpeted a castaway's
survival after more than a year adrift.
The
dramatic
rescue in the Marshall Islands brought heartbreaking news for Rios: Jose Salvador Alvarenga had
survived, but her son, who was with him, had perished at sea.
"For
me, it was a devastating blow," she told CNN last week. "The pain is
so great I can't explain it. I wouldn't wish this on anybody. Losing a child is
the hardest thing to bear in life."
Her
son, 23-year-old Ezequiel Cordova, set sail from Mexico with Alvarenga in late
2012. Both men were members of a small fishing cooperative and had planned to
spend a day catching sharks.
Castaway
finally heads home
But
something went terribly wrong. Winds blew them off course, a storm raged and
their engines failed, Alvarenga told authorities.
Four
weeks into their drift, according to Alvarenga, Cordova died of starvation
because he refused to eat raw birds and turtles. Eventually, he said, he threw
the body overboard.
"What
else could I do?" Alvarenga said.
Now,
as Alvarenga
begins his journey home to El Salvador, Rios is grieving her son's death, more than a
year after he went missing.
His
bedroom in the family's home in the village of El Fortin, Mexico, remains
exactly as he left it -- a simple green plaid blanket draped over the bed.
Jovani
Cordova says his brother was kind and worked hard to help their family.
"He
was responsible for my mother. In fact, he worked in the sea because of
her," he said. "He wanted to improve himself. He didn't want to be
poor like us."
The
road in the rural community is so bad it's easier to travel by boat. A short
ride took Cordova to where he worked, the nearby town of Costa Azul.
Members
of the cooperative, where fishermen make an average of $150 a week, still
remember the frantic search to find him and Alvarenga after their boat went
missing.
"My
colleagues went to fish, and the next day they told me by radio that the engine
failed and the GPS device was wet. We went to search for them for seven or
eight days with the authorities," said Bellarmino Rodrigues, who owned the
boat. "The governor gave us a small aircraft, but it was impossible to
find them."
Back
at the family home, Rios told CNN she was focused on one thing.
"As
a mother, I demand that the authorities allow me to talk to the survivor,"
she said last week. "Only in that way will I know what happened and what
he did with the body of my son. I deserve the truth."
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/10/world/americas/castaway-companion/index.html?hpt=ila_midHis bedroom in the family's home in
the village of El Fortin, Mexico, remains exactly as he left it -- a simple
green plaid blanket draped over the bed.
Jovani
Cordova says his brother was kind and worked hard to help their family.
"He
was responsible for my mother. In fact, he worked in the sea because of
her," he said. "He wanted to improve himself. He didn't want to be
poor like us."
The
road in the rural community is so bad it's easier to travel by boat. A short
ride took Cordova to where he worked, the nearby town of Costa Azul.
Members
of the cooperative, where fishermen make an average of $150 a week, still
remember the frantic search to find him and Alvarenga after their boat went
missing.
"My
colleagues went to fish, and the next day they told me by radio that the engine
failed and the GPS device was wet. We went to search for them for seven or
eight days with the authorities," said Bellarmino Rodrigues, who owned the
boat. "The governor gave us a small aircraft, but it was impossible to
find them."
Back
at the family home, Rios told CNN she was focused on one thing.
"As
a mother, I demand that the authorities allow me to talk to the survivor,"
she said last week. "Only in that way will I know what happened and what
he did with the body of my son. I deserve the truth."
The
dramatic
rescue in the Marshall Islands brought heartbreaking news for Rios: Jose Salvador Alvarenga had survived,
but her son, who was with him, had perished at sea.
"For
me, it was a devastating blow," she told CNN last week. "The pain is
so great I can't explain it. I wouldn't wish this on anybody. Losing a child is
the hardest thing to bear in life."
Her
son, 23-year-old Ezequiel Cordova, set sail from Mexico with Alvarenga in late
2012. Both men were members of a small fishing cooperative and had planned to
spend a day catching sharks.
