Castaway Claims Being Lost at Sea for More Than a Year

Washes up in the Marshall Islands

A mysterious castaway claiming to have been lost at sea for 13 months is now safely back on land, but many questions remain about how he could have lived on his small boat for so long as it drifted across the Pacific Ocean.

The man calling himself Jose Ivan Alvarengo turned up in a heavily damaged boat on a remote coral atoll in the Marshall Islands, claiming that he had been living off fish and turtles he had caught and relying on rainwater, and sometimes his own urine, to drink.

Authorities are trying to determine the veracity of Alvarengo's story. The Mexican government issued a statement Monday confirming Alvarengo's identity and saying he was an El Salvador national who was living in Tonala in Chiapas state.