Máximo Napa had set sail on December 7 from the port of San Juan de Marcona, in Ica, but the weather conditions caused his boat to lose its course and end up at sea
Máximo Napa's story is one of overcoming and resilience. The 61-year-old man has survived after spending 94 days adrift at sea and has been rescued by the Peruvian Navy off the port of Chimbote, as reported by Afp.
The fisherman has been discharged after spending several days at the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes hospital in Paita. Napa was found in international waters, in northern Peru, last Tuesday, said Peruvian Navy Captain Jorge González.
"Mr. Napa arrived in good physical condition; he could walk, bathe himself (...) probably a bit 'shocked' by the circumstances, but in good physical condition," added González. This Saturday he "was discharged" and transferred to Lima, Captain González added.
Napa had set sail on December 7 from the port of San Juan de Marcona, in Ica. The weather conditions caused his boat to lose its course and end up at sea.
"It's a miracle that they found my dad (...) We, as a family, never lost hope of finding him," his daughter, Inés Napa, told RPP radio station.
He survived by eating cockroaches, birds, and a turtle, as Napa himself tearfully recounted to local media upon his return to Peru on Friday night. "I didn't want to die for my mother. I have a two-month-old granddaughter; I clung to her, every day I thought of my mother," he expressed.
According to the Peruvian Navy, not having a distress beacon made the search for the fisherman more challenging.