Pacific castaway Jose Salvador Alvarenga has been ordered to rest after being hospitalised with a health scare, as a senior diplomat said all evidence so far verified his amazing story.

A castaway who says he survived 13 months adrift in the Pacific said he thought about suicide but was sustained by dreams of eating his favourite food — tortillas — and reuniting with his family.

It’s a story that almost defies belief: A man leaves Mexico in December 2012 for a day of shark fishing and ends up surviving 13 months on fish, birds, and turtles before washing ashore on the remote Marshall Islands 8,800km away.