FISHERMEN REACH LAND

Three Mexican fishermen who say they spent nine months adrift on the Pacific Ocean finally reached dry land when the Taiwanese fishing boat that rescued them arrived at a remote island chain halfway around the world from their homeland.

The trio landed on Monday in the Marshall Islands aboard the boat that pulled them from the ocean on Aug. 9, and after a medical checkup were found well enough to return to Mexico by airplane.

"I'm well, very well," said Salvador Ordonez, who answered "of course" when asked if he would go back to sea. "I've always worked on the sea," the 37-year old Ordonez said.

Asked what happened to two boatmates who they said died during the ordeal, he told the Televisa news network that one, whom they knew only as "Juan" didn't want to eat raw food. Eventually he and another man died, and the three survivors threw their bodies overboard, Ordonez said.

Jesus Vidana, 27, said the two dead men had hired the other three to make the fishing trip, and denied speculation the five may have set out to pick up drugs at sea, an activity not uncommon on Mexico's Pacific coast, which often serves as a transhipment point to the US.

"That's wrong because we set out to catch sharks," Vidana said.

The three survivors said heavy winds carried them out to sea, where they survived by catching and eating raw fish and drinking rain water. To pass the hours, they claim to have read the Bible and prayed for survival.

The group had planned on a short fishing expedition and was carrying only flashlights and a compass at the time they disappeared.

The fishermen have become instant folk heroes in Mexico.

photo & story courtesy taipeitimes.com, 8/23/06