After more than a year adrift in the Pacific Ocean , and after eight years away from his hometown , Jose Salvador Alvarenga is home . Around 8:30 p.m. ( 9:30 p.m . ET ) , after arriving on a flight from Los Angeles , Alvarenga was wheeled before a swarm of reporters in the airport terminal in El Salvador 's capital of San Salvador . Looking tired and weak , he appeared unable to muster any words after being handed a microphone . Alvarenga waved meekly -- eliciting applause from travelers and airport employees who 'd lined up to see him -- and sat quietly in his wheelchair as people shouted out and cameras flashed . Then , he put his hand on his head as he was wheeled away . His next stop was to be a hospital , where Violeta Menjivar , El Salvador 's vice minister of health , said Alvarenga 's health will be monitored . If and when everything checks out , presumably , Alvarenga will be free to roam his native El Salvador . But it 's understandable if , when that happens , it will seem like a strange place . His miraculous -- some say unbelievable -- story has captured the attention of so many . Even where he was found -- in an atoll in the Marshall Islands that is as secluded a locale as they come , set deep in the Pacific Ocean some 2,000 miles from Papua New Guinea and 2,400 miles from Hawaii -- Alvarenga 's rescue and recovery attracted a crush of media . It got so intense he moved to an undisclosed location to avoid the hubbub , sources familiar with his care told CNN on Saturday . Irene Sanchez , a spokeswoman for El Salvador 's foreign ministry , said Alvarenga `` felt harassed '' over the last two weeks , after having spent so many weeks alone . Now that he 's going home , she said Tuesday that he 's looking forward to spending time with his parents and daughter , as well as eating pupusas , a traditional Salvadoran dish . As to all the attention from everyone else , Sanchez said , `` He does n't know what awaits him . '' `` He does n't know what it is like to be a celebrity , or how to respond to all the media attention . '' His odyssey began in late 2012 when , he said , he left Mexico on what was supposed to be a one-day fishing expedition . But Alvarenga said he and a 23-year-old companion were blown off course by northerly winds and then caught in a storm . Eventually , the pair lost use of their engines and , according to Alvarenga , had no radio signal to report their plight . Four weeks into their drift , his companion died of starvation because he refused to eat raw birds and turtles , Alvarenga said . Eventually , he threw the body overboard . Castaway recounts how he survived . Alvarenga 's next interaction with humans came January 30 . It was then that islanders on Ebon , a remote atoll on the already remote Marshall Islands , spotted the mysterious visitor . As he inhaled pancake after pancake , Alvarenga recounted what he 'd gone through . Soon after , images of the bearded , bedraggled castaway began circulating worldwide . His claims about his time stranded at sea garnered widespread skepticism about how he could survive the more than 6,000-mile trek across the open ocean . But officials in the Marshall Islands have said repeatedly that they have no reason to doubt the story . His story is resonating in his hometown , the coastal Salvadoran village of Garita Palmera . Balloons and ribbons hang across the house where Alvarenga 's family lives there , and a `` Welcome Home '' banner is strung up outside on a palm tree archway . A heart-shaped decoration made by his niece says , `` May God bless you . '' Now clean-shaven and gaining strength , Alvarenga is expected to end up back in Garita Palmera for his homecoming . As she awaited his return this week , his mother , Julia Alvarenga , said she 'd been praying for him since his last visit eight years ago . `` That was the only hope I had all this time , '' she said . `` I would pray to God , and I wo n't lie to you , I was crying ; but I never lost my faith . '' 5 things about the castaway 's tale .
Alvarenga appears in a wheelchair in San Salvador 's airport , looking tired and weak . He says he survived more than a year stranded at sea . His family says it 's been eight years since his last visit to his native town . Official says of Alvarenga 's newfound celebrity : `` He does n't know what awaits him ''