Peruvian fisherman rescued after 95 days at sea survived on diet of cockroaches, fish and turtle blood

A Peruvian fisherman who was rescued after 95 days lost at sea told CNN that his faith and his desire to see his family again kept him going – along with a diet of cockroaches, birds, fish and the occasional turtle.

A Peruvian fisherman who was rescued after 95 days lost at sea told CNN that his faith and his desire to see his family again kept him going – along with a diet of cockroaches, birds, fish and the occasional turtle. “Firstly, it was my faith in God. Because I spoke to him for many days. Because I let him know how important my family was. My mother, my brother, my children,” Máximo Napa Castro – who goes by the name of Gatón – said in an interview with CNN’s Jimena De La Quintana. Keeping hope alive wasn’t easy. His morale dwindled along with his food supply. It reached a point where he thought he didn’t want to live anymore. “I even got a knife three times. Three times I got the knife because I couldn’t take it anymore,” he said. “But I told myself: Calm down, Gatón. You can do it. You can do it.” He said he had packed enough supplies to last him a month. And after those first 30 days at sea, he was ready to head back to land. But that’s when his boat’s motor stopped running. He tried many times to get it to work again, but to no avail. From there, he knew he had to ration the few scraps of food and water he had left, hoping it would last him long enough for someone to find him. But after another month or so, his rations ran out. So, he turned to drastic measures.