When handed the microphone, Jose Salvador Alvarenga held it in silence before putting his hands to his face and appearing to cry.

The 37-year-old washed ashore on the Marshall Islands in the end of January, saying he'd been at sea since his fishing boat got knocked off course by a storm. Alvarenga said he left southern Mexico in December 2012, but Mexican officials say the boat disappeared on Nov. 17, 2012.

Alvarenga is back in his native country of El Salvador. He arrived late Tuesday and was brought to a news conference at an airport in a wheelchair.

Another man in the boat with him, Ezequiel Cordoba, did not survive the ordeal. Alvarenga survived by eating raw fish and turtles, drinking bird blood and sheltering from the sun with a large plastic cooler.

He's been estranged from his family for several years and had not previously met his 14-year-old daughter, Fatima.

After the news conference. Alvarenga was brought by ambulance to a hospital for a medical evaluation.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.