The incredible story of real-life castaway, José Salvador Alvarenga’s 13 month odyssey of survival at sea have many thinking it may be too unbelievable. This miraculous story of survival coupled with some dodgy Mexican bookkeeping has Alvarenga’s tale under a large amount of scrutiny.

By his account, he left the fishing village Costa Azul on the coast of Mexico sometime in December 2012 with a fellow fisherman called Ezequiel. After bad weather swept their little boat out to sea, Alvarenga survived for more than a year by eating fish, birds and turtles, quenching his thirst with rain water and turtle blood, before washing up on Ebon in the Marshall Islands. Sadly Ezequiel didn’t, who Alvarenga described as a teenager.

According to Mexican officials a boat manned by two fisherman was recorded to have gone missing from Costa Azul on 17 November 2012. Bad weather had stopped their search and rescue attempts at the time short after two days. Records from this incident show two 38-year-old men on board, Cirilo Vargas and Ezequiel Cordova, which contradicts the 37-year-old Alvarenga’s claims of Ezequiel’s age.

But it has been known that Mexican reports usually contain a mistake or two on occasion, adding some credibility to the castaway’s accounts of his adventure. Others claim that surviving for such a long time at sea on his diet seems impossible not to have contracted scurvy at least.

If you want to learn more about José Salvador Alvarenga’s survival at sea, click here.

Does he seem thin enough to you?

[ Source : TheGuardian ]