Salvadoran Castaway in Mexico to Fulfill Promise to Family of Companion Who Died Associated Press
go to original March 15, 2014

Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga, center, accompanied by his parents, Jose Ricardo Orellana, left, and Maria Julia Alvarenga, right, arrives at Tapachula airport in Chiapas state, Mexico, on Friday. (Elizabeth Ruiz/AFP/Getty Images)

EL FORTIN, Mexico — A Salvadoran fisherman who says he drifted at sea for more than a year met Saturday with the mother of his companion who died during the ordeal, an emotional gathering that he said helped him fulfill a promise he made to his friend.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga embraced his friend Ezequiel Cordoba's mother and both cried as a horde of journalists recorded the moment.

"I would've liked to have welcomed my son like this," said Roselia Diaz Cueto.

"It fills with happiness to be with my friend's mother," Alvarenga told her.

Alvarenga said he and Cordoba, who died about a month after they first became lost at sea, promised each other that whoever survived would visit the other's family and tell them what happened.

The 37-year-old fisherman's boat washed up in the Marshall Islands in February. He returned Friday to Mexico, the country where the journey began in December 2012. Some have expressed disbelief at his tale of survival, which included eating turtles, fish and birds and drifting more than 6,500 miles (10,500 kilometers) into the sea.

After meeting with the young fisherman's mother, Alvarenga planned to travel to Costa Azul, the place where the pair had set out.

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