PISCO, Peru (CNN) – A fisherman rescued after being lost at sea for 95 days says his faith and his desire to see his family again kept him going as he survived on a diet of cockroaches, birds and fish.
Máximo Napa Castro, who goes by the name Gatón, set off on his fishing boat Dec. 7, CNN reports. But bad weather caused the 61-year-old from Peru to lose his way.
In the months Gatón spent on the Pacific Ocean, keeping hope alive wasn’t easy. His morale and food supply dwindled, and it reached a point where he thought he didn’t want to live anymore.
“Three times I got the knife because I couldn’t take it anymore,” he said through a translator. “But I told myself: ‘Calm down, Gatón. You can do it. You can do it.’”
Gatón credits his faith and his desire to see his family again with keeping him going, even in the direst of circumstances. To survive, he ate cockroaches, birds, fish and the occasional turtle.
“I didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t have a choice. It was my life,” he said.
Gatón was rescued March 11 off the coast of northern Peru, according to CNN. He was heavily dehydrated and in critical condition, but he was alive.
“It was something sensational,” he said.
After those excruciating 95 days, the fisherman now says he has a newfound appreciation for life.
“I will tell my story worldwide, so the world knows that God is everything in this life, that we put our hand on our chest and fill ourselves with love, give love. That is what we need here on Earth,” he said.
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