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Castaway now staying in hotel in Marshall Islands

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MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Jose Salvador Alvarenga, who says he survived 13 months at sea before washing up in the Marshall Islands, moved from a hospital to a hotel Friday.

Alvarenga was hospitalized Thursday, CNN reported. But he was released to a hotel in Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands, a day later.

Dr. Franklin House, a retired U.S. physician, told CNN Alvarenga may be suffering from scurvy. House, who is not the doctor in charge of Alvarenga's treatment, said the man has complained of pain in his kidneys since he arrived in the islands.

Alvarenga, a Dominican who had been living illegally in Mexico, said he went fishing for shark in late 2012 with another man. They got caught in a storm and then lost their engines, and he survived for 13 months on a diet of raw fish and turtles.

The other man, Ezequiel Cordova, 23, refused to eat raw meat and died after about four weeks, Alvarenga said.

Officials say Alvarenga's story, improbable as it sounds, appears to be true. Cordova disappeared in December 2012.

Cordova's mother said she wants to talk to Alvarenga to find out exactly what happened.

"My brother was kind, he was responsible for my mother," Cordova's brother told CNN. "In fact, he worked in the sea because of her. He wanted to improve himself. He didn't want to be poor, like us."

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Castaway now staying in hotel in Marshall Islands

Marshall Islands castaway released from hospital after second admission

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MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- The castaway who landed on a beach in the Marshall Islands after reportedly 13 months lost at sea was released from a hospital Friday, after his second medical admission within a week.

37-year-old Jose Salvador Alvarenga landed his badly damaged boat in a remote area of the Marshall Islands on January 30 with a story of having been lost at sea since December 2012, and having survived by eating birds, turtles, fish, and small sharks, and drinking rain water -- and occasionally -- his own urine.

Doctors who examined Alvarenga initially found him to be in relatively good health except for swelling in his legs. He was admitted and released from a hospital within 24 hours earlier in the week. On Thursday, Alvarenga was readmitted to a hospital when his health deteriorated, with doctors reporting he was severely dehydrated, low on vitamins, and his legs still swollen. It seems the castaway's health improved Friday, as he was released from the hospital and is now staying at a hotel in the capital city of Majuro.

At the time of his disappearance, Alvarenga, who is a native of El Salvador, worked for a Mexican company and has expressed a desire to be repatriated to Mexico. Because Mexico has no diplomatic presence in the Marshall Islands, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs directed embassy personnel posted to the Philippines to travel to Majuro "to learn directly about the case." On Wednesday, Deputy Chief of Mission Christian Clay Mendoza from the Mexican Embassy in Manila arrived in Majuro to address Alvarenga's repatriation request.

On December 21, 2012, Alvarenga said he and a 15-year-old fisherman named Ezekiel set off for a one-day fishing trip when the motor on their 24-foot boat stopped working. They then drifted into the Pacific Ocean. Ezekiel died four months later. Alvarenga said he survived off of birds, turtles, fish, and small sharks. He said he drank rain water and occasionally drank his own urine to quench his thirst.

[CNN] [Daily Mail]

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Marshall Islands castaway released from hospital after second admission

Islands of inspiration

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Outside the Lee Ufan Museum, Naoshima. Photo: Getty Images

An unlikely art trail in a remote corner of Japan has Danielle Demetriou captivated.

I am standing in a dark, windowless room resonating with the sound of a human heartbeat, each pulsating thump accompanied by a strobe-like flicker of light.

This is not because I am in the bowels of an underground nightclub in Tokyo. Nor am I detained in a mental institute (despite the presence of a woman in a clinical white outfit just the other side of the door).

Giant pumpkin at Shikoku Island. Photo: AFP

My location is a wooden building on a forest-fringed beach on a tiny fishing island in Japan - and I am inside a modern art installation.

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The appreciation of contemporary art usually takes place in a gallery. But things are done differently in Japan - in particular, in the Seto Inland Sea area. Scattered with 3000-plus islands, this idyllic expanse of blue water is dubbed the Mediterranean of Japan on account of its temperate climate and olive trees.

It is in this region, about 640 kilometres south of Tokyo, that hundreds of artworks - the heartbeat house included - have been installed across rice fields, beaches, shrines and old houses as part of an unusual project to revitalise ageing communities.

Benesse House Art. Photo: Inside Japan Tours

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Islands of inspiration

Marshall Islands castaway appears weaker in public appearance

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand The Salvadoran man who says he spent more than a year drifting across the Pacific Ocean before finally making landfall in the Marshall Islands last week made a brief public appearance Thursday looking much weaker than he did earlier in the week.

Jose Salvador Alvarenga greeted about 50 officials and media at the Marshall Islands Resort hotel where he is staying. Sporting a haircut and a shave, he was assisted into the room by two people while others stood by ready to help.

Speaking in a low voice, he thanked the government and his friends for their help, but declined to take questions. The Associated Press listened into the meeting by cellphone and had it described by an official who declined to be named because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

"He walked in but he needed a lot of help," the official said. "I would say he made an impression that is really now far more consistent with the journey he said he made. He was much weaker, extremely tired looking, much less animated and was speaking extremely slowly. He looked exhausted, frankly. Like someone who has run two or three marathons."

Alvarenga's spritely appearance Monday when he greeted hundreds of well-wishers in the capital Majuro after making landfall last week on a remote atoll had many questioning his story. He earlier told officials he left Mexico in late 2012 with another fisherman, who later died, for a day of shark fishing when a storm threw them off course and they began drifting.

Officials at the meeting said Alvarenga needed to be taken back to the hospital for more medical checks and it would likely be three or four days before he was fit enough to travel back to El Salvador.

Also speaking at the meeting was the Marshall Islands foreign minister, Phillip Muller, and Mexican diplomat Chris Clay Mendoza.

Muller said the Marshall Islands was happy to live up to its humanitarian obligations and do everything it could to assist Alvarenga.

Clay Mendoza said he'd immediately departed from Manila for the Marshall Islands after initial reports indicated Alvarenga was a Mexican national. He said he was now assisting El Salvador in its efforts to repatriate Alvarenga.

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Marshall Islands castaway appears weaker in public appearance

Legendary Locations Countdown to Swimsuit, Day 13: Exuma Islands, Bahamas

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Posted February 05, 2014

Nina Agdal & Ariel Meredith in the Bahamas, 2013 :: Walter Iooss Jr./SI

SwimDaily iscelebrating the impending launch of Swimsuits 50th anniversary issue with this video-a-day series, hosted by Emily DiDonatoand featuringour most memorable shoot locations.

Be sure to come back daily because we are sending ONE LUCKY READER to on the trip of a lifetime to the No. 1 Legendary Location. Go herefor more details!

* * *

Nassau and its sky scraping hotels get all the pub in the Bahamas but its an open secret that here, in Georgetown, the capital and largest city of the Exuma Islands district, are some of the most picturesque waterfronts on the planet. Paradise? Paradise aint got nothing on this place.

The Exumas are a collection of islands known for its natural treasures. One of the first stops on our boat tour takes us to an island inhabited by oversized Iguanas. Putter out a little further and go ashore at a thick sandbar planted in the middle of the sea. Sand is just sand to you until you stick your feet in this and watch them sink up to your ankles. A trip to a private marina allows passengers the opportunity to swim with sharks, while at the Thunderball Grottoso named for its use in the 1965 Bond filmsnorkelers can cruise through the caves gazing down at the thousands of fish that call it home.

The highlight of the trip is the finale, a small, seemingly uninhabited island. It looks quiet upon first approach, but the sound of the outboard motor sends a pack of 300-plus pound pigs indigenous to the area charging into the sea. Tourists are encouraged to feed, pet and swim with them, and the pigs are happy to hang out as long as food keeps coming in their direction.

Its a unique experience in a unique place. And its why for any visitor who makes the journey to Georgetown, one trip is never enough.

Chris Mannix

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Legendary Locations Countdown to Swimsuit, Day 13: Exuma Islands, Bahamas

Castaway arrives in Marshall Islands after 13 months at sea

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MAJURO, Marshall Islands, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- A 37-year-old man arrived in a badly damaged boat in the Marshall Islands on January 30, claiming to have been lost at sea since December 2012.

The man, who identified himself as an El Salvadoran national named Jose Ivan Alvarengo, described his ordeal in an interview with The Telegraph. Upon seeing land last week, Alvarengo said, "I cried, Oh God. I got to land and had a mountain of sleep. In the morning I woke up and heard a rooster and saw chickens and saw a small house. I saw two native women screaming and yelling. I didnt have any clothes -- I was only in my underwear and they were ripped and torn."

Alvarengo appeared well fed despite his 13 months at sea, has a gaunt face, swollen ankles, and a bushy beard.

On December 21, 2012, Alvarengo said he and a 15-year-old fisherman named Ezekiel set off for a one-day fishing trip when the motor on their 24-foot boat stopped working. They then drifted into the Pacific Ocean. Ezekiel died four months later. Alvarengo survived off of birds, turtles, fish, and small sharks. He said he frequently drank his urine to quench his thirst.

Despite contemplating suicide during a four-day period, he credited constant prayer, lack of boredom, and little fear with his survival. "I had my mind on God ... If I was going to die, I would be with God. So I wasnt scared ... I imagine this is an incredible story for people."

According to CNN Weather producer Judson Jones, it is possible Alvarengo traveled from Mexico to the Marshall Islands within 13 months given a possible "meandering journey in and out of the currents" in the Pacific.

At the time of his disappearance, Alvarengo worked for a Mexican company and wants to be repatriated to Mexico. The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement indicating embassy personnel from the Philippines would travel to the Marshall Islands "to learn directly about the case."

U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Thomas Hart Armbruster has been credited with helping authorities obtain information about Alvarengo's family in El Salvador and the U.S.

[The Telegraph] [CNN]

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Castaway arrives in Marshall Islands after 13 months at sea

Marshall Islands castaway? Man says he survived 13 months adrift in Pacific

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Marshall Islands:Officials were reacting cautiously to the Spanish-speaking man's story while they try to piece together more information. If true, the man's ordeal would rank among the greatest tales ever of survival at sea.

It's a story that almost defies belief: A man leaves Mexico in December 2012 for a day of shark fishing and ends up surviving 13 months on fish, birds and turtles before washing ashore on the remote Marshall Islands some 5,500 miles (8,800 kilometers) away.

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But that's the story a man identifying himself as 37-year-old Jose Salvador Alvarenga told the U.S. ambassador in the Marshall Islands and the nation's officials during a 30-minute meeting Monday before he was taken to a local hospital for monitoring. Alvarenga washed ashore on the tiny atoll of Ebon in thePacific Ocean last week before being taken to the capital, Majuro, on Monday.

"It's hard for me to imagine someone surviving 13 months at sea," said Ambassador Tom Armbruster in Majuro. "But it's also hard to imagine how someone might arrive on Ebon out of the blue. Certainly this guy has had an ordeal, and has been at sea for some time."

Other officials were reacting cautiously to the Spanish-speaking man's story while they try to piece together more information. If true, the man's ordeal would rank among the greatest tales ever of survival at sea.

Armbruster said the soft-spoken man complained of joint pain Monday and had a limp but was able to walk. He had long hair and a beard, the ambassador said, and rather than appearing emaciated he looked puffy in places, including around his ankles. Otherwise, he added, Alvarenga seemed in reasonable health.

Armbruster, who speaks Spanish, said the survivor told the following story:

He's a native of El Salvador but has lived in Mexico for 15 years and fishes for a man he knows as Willie, catching sharks for 25 pesos ($1.90) per pound.

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Marshall Islands castaway? Man says he survived 13 months adrift in Pacific

Mexican fisherman shore up Marshall Islands castaway's account

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A man lost at sea for more than a year survived, he says, on only what he caught from a small fishing boat. It seems improbable, but doctors say it's possible.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

The father of Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga said he was told his long-lost son vanished on a fishing trip but he didnt have the heart to break the news to his ailing wife.

Courtesy of Telemundo

Ezequiel Cordoba saw Jose Salvador Alvarenga on Dec. 18, 2012, when he left to go fishing with Jose Salvador Alvarenga.

Now both parents are celebrating after learning that the son they last saw almost a decade ago is alive after washing up on the Marshall Islands with a long beard and an astonishing story of more than a year lost at sea.

They told me that he had entered the sea and that hed never come out, Ricardo Orellana told NBC partner Telemundo from the family home in El Salvador.

But because she was ill, I told her nothing, he said of his wife, Julia Alvarenga, who wept tears of gratitude.

Although she had no idea that Alvarenga had left Mexico on a 24-foot boat and never returned, because he had been out of touch for so long, she worried misfortune had befallen him.

I pleaded to my all powerful God that if my son was still alive, that he would take care of him. If he was dead, that he would forgive him, she said.

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Mexican fisherman shore up Marshall Islands castaway's account

Man washes up on remote Marshall Islands atoll after more than a year adrift in Pacific

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About 1,000 curious onlookers crowded the dock for a glimpse of the long-haired fisherman, who smiled and waved briefly before he was whisked away for a medical check-up at Majuro Hospital. Photo: AFP

A man who says he survived more than a year adrift in the Pacific drinking turtle blood and catching fish with his bare hands has been transported to the Marshall Islands capital Majuro for treatment.

A male nurse had to help the man down the gangplank of a police patrol boat after a 22-hour trip from the remote coral atoll where he washed shore last week after apparently setting sail from Mexico in late 2012.

About 1,000 curious onlookers crowded the dock for a glimpse of the long-haired fisherman, who smiled and waved briefly before he was whisked away for a medical check-up at Majuro Hospital.

An emaciated man whose boat washed up on a remote Pacific atoll this week claims he survived 16 months adrift on the Pacific. Photo: AFP.

He was found disorientated and clad only in ragged underpants last Thursday, after his 7.3-metre fibreglass boat floated onto a reef at Ebon Atoll, the southernmost cluster of coral islands in the Marshalls.

Marshall Islands Foreign Affairs acting secretary Gee Bing said the the man, who identified himself as Jose Salvador Albarengo, 37, told interpreters he set sail from Mexico to El Salvador on a shark fishing expedition in late 2012.

Mr Bing said Mr Albarengo says he was accompanied by a Mexican man who died at sea.

"Well according to him he said he was on a fishing trip with another guy and somehow the north wind blew them and they got lost," Mr Bing told Pacific Beat

Map locating the Marshall Islands, in the northern Pacific Ocean, which are home to barely 60,000 people spread over 24 atolls. Photo: AFP.

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Man washes up on remote Marshall Islands atoll after more than a year adrift in Pacific


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