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Kon-Tiki: Across The Pacific In A Raft

Now a major motion picture, Kon-Tiki is the record of Thor Heyerdahl’s astonishing three-month voyage across the Pacific.Kon-Tiki is the record of an astonishing adventure—a journey of 4,300 nautical miles across the Pacific Ocean by raft. Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his theory by duplicating the legendary voyage. On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and five other adventurers sailed from Peru on a balsa log raft. After three months on the open sea, encountering raging storms, whales, and sharks, they sighted land—the Polynesian island of Puka Puka. Translated into sixty-five languages, Kon-Tiki is a classic, inspiring tale of daring and courage—a magnificent saga of men against the sea. This edition includes a foreword by the author and a unique visual essay of the voyage.

Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster; unknown edition (May 1, 1990)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0671726528

ISBN-13: 978-0671726522

Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.8 inches

Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (314 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #21,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional Canada #5 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Australian #6 in Books > Travel > Canada > General

With each passing year, less and less of the world remains to be discovered. With GPS and satellite imagery, our oceans have been charted and the jungles surveyed. Our world is no longer a mystery. No longer do we have maps fringed by threatening pictures of dragons and sea monsters warning sailors and explorers of the unknown that lies out there. But when I picked up this book I was taken back fifty years in time. Back to a time when men ate meat raw and walked around with clubs hunting big game. OK, perhaps I am getting carried away.Thor Heyerdahl believed the Polynesian islands were inhabited by sea faring travellers from Peru. But his thesis on this topic was ridiculed because no one would believe that the pacific ocean could be crossed by a flimsy raft made of balsa wood and bamboo. So Heyerdahl decides to prove IT IS possible by building a raft using exactly the same materials the ancient Peruvians used and sailing off the coast of Peru hoping to eventually reach Polynesia.Nearly every step off his journey was filled with nay sayers who said he was crazy and "experts" who variably told him he was going to die, the raft was going to break apart, or the balsa wood would absorb the sea water and sink. He ignored them all. When they told him balsa trees of the size he needed no longer existed along the coast, he took a jeep deep into the jungles through flooded roads and GOT his trees. Which then they floated down to the ocean in a river.Heyerdahl is keenly aware of his surroundings and describes his voyage vividly and in simple prose. I could smell the sea breeze and feel the spray of the ocean. It was like taking a mini vacation every time I sat down with this book. You'll swim with whale sharks and get caught in ferocious storms.

Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft Inside Out: Literature, Cultural Politics, and Identity in the New Pacific (Pacific Formations: Global Relations in Asian and Pacific Perspectives) The Raft Satoshi Kon's: Opus A Long Trek Home: 4,000 Miles by Boot, Raft and Ski Art of Satoshi Kon Trespassing Across America: One Man's Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland The Book of Tiki Tiki Pop: America imagines its own Polynesian Paradise Tiki Style Trader Vic's Tiki Party!: Cocktails and Food to Share with Friends Mai-Kai: History and Mystery of the Iconic Tiki Restaurant Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure across the Pacific Rails Across Canada: The History of Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways Check Six!: A Thunderbolt Pilot's War Across the Pacific Pacific Coast Tree Finder: A Pocket Manual for Identifying Pacific Coast Trees (Nature Study Guides) America's Great Hiking Trails: Appalachian, Pacific Crest, Continental Divide, North Country, Ice Age, Potomac Heritage, Florida, Natchez Trace, Arizona, Pacific Northwest, New England Karen Brown's Pacific Northwest 2010 (Karen Brown's Pacific Northwest: Exceptional Places to Stay & Itineraries) Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942