Wednesday, June 8

            Watched the 1951 Academy Award winner for best documentary, Kon Tiki in which Norwegian natural scientist Thor Heyerdahl and five crew men record on camera their voyage from Peru to the Polynesian islands by wood raft (called Kon Tiki after an ancient warrior/god believed to have first traveled from Peru to Polynesia).  He proved his theory that Polynesia was settled from the east and not the west (as was the conventional wisdom), because South Americans could have utilized the trade winds and equatorial currents to sail a balsa wood raft the 5000 miles west.  This would then explain the plants and fruits that are in both South America and Polynesia.  The voyage took 101 days.  Their vessel was made from nine balsa wood tress, bamboo and rope just as ancient South Americans would have made 1500 years ago.  One can go see the Kon Tiki vessel at the Kon Tiki museum in Oslo, Norway.