Castaway survival proves double miracle for his family
A castaway's remarkable tale of surviving adrift in the Pacific for more than a year has come as a huge shock to his mother and father, as they thought he had died several years ago.
Jose Salvador Alvarenga's claims of an epic 6,500-mile voyage in an open boat made headlines around the world after he was found, apparently washed ashore, in the remote Marshall Islands.
But no one was as surprised by the emergence of the Salvadoran and his now-disputed sea-faring account as his parents, who had lost touch with their son eight years ago and had given him up for dead.
His 59-year old mother, Maria Julia Alvarenga, broke into tears at the family's home of Garita Palmera, around 60 miles west of El Salvador's capital San Salvador, as she recounted her first phone call with her long-lost son.
She said he told her he was well, staying at a hotel and getting food and medicine - but still didn't know where he was.
He told her: "I give thanks to God because he looked after me in the water."
Mr Alvarenga, who left El Salvador more than a decade ago, claims to have set sail for his homeland from Mexico with a fellow fisherman in December 2012 before the pair ended up desperately far off course.
He said his friend died after about a month at sea and he tossed his body overboard, before he himself went on to survive for at least a year on raw fish, birds, bird blood and turtles.
Mr Alvarenga's parents said he was known in his hometown as "Cirilo" - which matches the first name of one of two men reported missing by Mexican officials after their small fishing boat disappeared in November 2012.
The discrepancy in dates has yet to be explained, while sceptics of Mr Alvarenga's account point out that he did not appear badly sunburned by more than 13 months in Pacific and appeared surprisingly well fed.