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
Herman Watzinger which was cancelled because of World War II, and applied for a job in the U.S and sought a visa to the U.S. He met Thor Heyerdahl in New York City, where he was asked to participate in the construction of the Kon-Tiki raft and become a member of the expedition. On board the raft, where he was second in command, he was responsible for meteorological and hydrographic measurements. After the Kon-Tiki expedition, he returned to Lima in 1970, where he worked as head of fisheries, projects and advisor in freezing techniques for WR Grace & Co and Atlas. Watzinger