Pre-Columbian rafts voyaged as far as Mexico and introduced metallurgy to the civilizations of that country. Some scholars and adventurers of the 20th and 21st century have asserted that the rafts and their crews journeyed thousands of miles across the Pacific to Polynesia, most notably Thor Heyerdahl who reached Polynesia on the Kon-Tiki raft. Several other people and groups have also built rafts based on prehistoric models and undertaken trans-Pacific voyages. Balsa is the Spanish word for raft. The use of rafts for commerce on the coasts of Peru and Ecuador, from northern Chile to southern Colombia, continued until the late 19th
Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park is an 1,800-acre climate park located in Ayeyarwady Region of Myanmar. The park is situated at the delta region of Irrawaddy River at the edge of the Bay of Bengal. The park was named after the Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer, Thor Heyerdahl. It was initiated following the research on mangrove restoration by the Worldview International Foundation (WIF) in 2012 in association with Pathein University, Myeik University and Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, Myanmar. The park is designed for mangrove restoration in Myanmar to overcome losses of 1 million Hectares since 1980.