In the Mexican coastal village, Jose Salvador Alvarenga's fellow fishermen speak of their astonishment and jubilation when they saw that their long lost friend was still alive
Jose Salvador Alvarenga who washed ashore on the Marshall Islands said he survived more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean, drinking turtle blood and catching fish and birds with his bare hands.
He told officials he set sail on a shark fishing trip from Mexico in late December 2012 - some 10,000 km - but was blown out to sea.
He was found in a disoriented state on a remote coral atoll where he had been washed up over the weekend in his 22-foot fiberglass boat.
His astonishing tale of survival has been met with disbelief in some quarters, but fellow fishermen Bellarmino Rodriguez Solis, 64, from Chiapas village of Costa Azul, in Mexico where Mr Alvarenga lived confirmed his identity.
"We were all shouting and jumping with joy. We all knew him. We recognised him. It was his voice. There is no way it's not him, " he said.
"We've been talking about it and we'd like to throw him a party. We'll put on music, slaughter an animal, have seafood, and that's why we'd like him to come back here."
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