Teenager who survived 26 days adrift arrives home
PANAMA CITY (AP) – A Panamanian teenager who survived 28 days on a boat adrift in the Pacific Ocean has arrived home.
Dozens of people welcomed a thin Adrian Vasquez in Panama City’s airport Tuesday. The 18-year-old shed some tears as his relatives hugged him.
Vasquez didn’t talk to reporters. His parents whisked him to a waiting car that took him to his hometown of Rio Hato.
The teenager and two friends left on a fishing trip Feb. 24 and were heading back to Rio Hato when the boat’s motor failed.
Vasquez’s two friends died within three weeks. Vasquez was rescued Friday by Ecuadorean fishermen who stumbled across his boat off the Galapagos Islands.
He told Ecuadorean authorities he likely owed his survival to a sudden rainstorm that replenished his water supply.
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