Maximo Napa had set off for a fishing trip from Marcona, a town on the southern Peruvian coast, on December 7. He packed food for a two-week trip but 10 days in, stormy weather threw his boat off course and he ended up adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
His family launched a search but Peru’s maritime patrols were unable to locate him until Wednesday, when an Ecuadorian fishing patrol discovered him some 1,094 kilometres (680 miles) off the country’s coast, heavily dehydrated and in critical condition.
“I did not want to die,” Napa said after reuniting with his brother, in Paita, near the border with Ecuador. “I ate roaches, birds, the last thing I ate was turtles.”
He said he stayed strong thinking about his family, including his two-month-old granddaughter, even as he survived on rainwater he collected on the boat and ran out of food, ultimately spending the last 15 days without eating.
