Man wakes up buried in coffin after passing out while binge-drinking

Victor Hugo Mica Alvarez claims he escaped from a casket about 80 kilometers from where he had blacked out during a drinking session in the South American country of Bolivia.

The night before, Alvarez had attended the Mother Earth festival in El Alto, where he had consumed copious amounts of alcohol in honor of Pachamama, the goddess of earth and fertility.

According to local media, the celebrations include festival-goers making "sullu" sacrifices to the planet.

Alvarez believes he was elected as one of this year's contributions by the drunk locals, who buried him alive as a gift to Pachamama on August 6.

"Last night was the pre-entry [of the festival], we went dancing. And afterwards I don't remember.The only thing I remember is that I thought I was in my bed, I wanted to get up to go urinate and I couldn't move,” he narrated the ordeal to journalists.

"When I pushed the coffin, I was able to break a glass that it had and that way I was able to get out.I barely broke the glass and, through the glass, dirt began to enter. They wanted to use me as a sullu."

He went on to explain how he managed to push himself out of the pit against the piling mud: "I broke the glass, my whole hand was hurt, I barely got out, but I went to the police and they said I was drunk."

"'You’re going to come healthy,' they told me."

In indigenous Bolivian traditions, it is believed that Pachamama "opens her mouth" for offerings in August.

Participants of the Mother Earth festival give the goddess gifts such as animals, sheep foetuses, cocoa leaves and colourful sweets.