3 February 2014 Last updated at 03:26 ET 
Jose Ivan steps off a patrol vessel in Majuro with the help of a nurse after a 22-hour boat ride from the isolated Ebon Atoll A Mexican castaway, who says he spent more than a year adrift in the Pacific, has pleaded to be taken home after washing up in the Marshall Islands.
“I want to get back to Mexico,” Jose Ivan reportedly said as he was taken to the islands’ capital, Majuro, for a medical examination.
Mr Ivan said he left Mexico with a friend for a trip in a fibre-glass boat in December 2012.
He was found by people living on the island of Ebon Atoll on Thursday.
‘Bad shape’ Continue reading the main storyWhen we got there we first found his boat, which was… grown over with shells and other sea animals”End Quote Ola Fjeldstad Norwegian student on Ebon Atoll Emaciated and wearing only ragged underpants, Mr Ivan washed ashore when his boat floated onto a reef at the small, isolated island.
He apparently survived the 5,000-mile (8,000km) ordeal by catching fish, birds and turtles with his bare hands.
He said his travelling companion died at sea many months ago.
No details have emerged about how the 24ft (7m) boat ran into trouble or how his companion died.
Ola Fjeldstad, a Norwegian anthropology student on Ebon Atoll, told the BBC how the castaway was apparently discovered: “A group of us got into the boat… and went over to meet him.
“And when we got there we first found his boat, which was… grown over with shells and other sea animals. It had a live baby bird, a dead turtle, some turtle shells, and fish leftovers inside.
“He was in really bad shape in terms of strength and in terms of mental health.”
As he boarded a Marshall Islands patrol vessel to Majuro on Sunday, he said: “I feel bad. I am so far away. I don’t know where I am or what happened.”
Mr Ivan, who only speaks Spanish, had been communicating with Ione deBrum, Ebon Atoll’s mayor, by drawing pictures, the AFP news agency reported.
Three Mexican fishermen were rescued off the Marshall Islands in August 2006 after what they said was about nine months drifting across the Pacific Ocean.
They survived on rain water, sea birds and fish.
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Mexico Pacific castaway seeks return
