A fisherman who claims he spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific has returned home to El Salvador.<br /><br /> With his bushy beard gone, Jorge Salvador Alvarenga, 36, appeared fresh faced but his health remains fragile. When confronted by a throng of reporters, clearly moved, he was unable to speak.<br /><br /> Alvarenga says he was washed ashore in the Marshall Islands at the end of last month after leaving southern Mexico on a shark hunting trip in late December 2012. He claims he survived by drinking turtle blood and catching fish and birds with his bare hands.<br /><br /> He was found in a disoriented state on a remote coral atoll in his 7.3-metre fiberglass boat, some 10,000 kilometres away in the Marshall Islands.<br /><br /> Alvarenga, a fisherman for 15 years, said he set sail with another fisherman who died weeks into their ordeal.<br /><br /> He was reunited with his family before being taken to a local hospital for further tests. Given his new found celebrity status, it appears he is going to need as much rest and recovery time as he can get.
