Gonzalo Figueroa Garcia Huidobro is) widely accepted, but from South America. In 1947, Heyerdahl successfully sailed the balsa-wood raft "Kon-Tiki" from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands in an effort to prove it could be done. The subsequent Rapa Nui expedition was meant to be less of an adventurous experiment and more of a true scientific expedition. Figueroa was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student in archaeology at the University of Chile and working at Santiago's natural history museum when he joined Heyerdahl's expedition as the official representative of Chile and liaison officer, or, as Edwin Ferndon referred to him, "a 'watchdog' representative." He was also to
Kon-Tiki (2012 film) the ropes." Thor Heyerdahl, Jr., who worked with Watzinger, concurred in the criticism of the film's portrayal of Watzinger. Other minor alterations from Heyerdahl's book include the ship's parrot being eaten by a shark in the film (its real-life counterpart was simply washed overboard by a large wave). The film also shows the crew only getting access to valuable US military equipment once they have arrived in Peru and are building the raft, whereas Heyerdahl in fact arranged for the equipment at a visit to the Pentagon before traveling to Peru. The film premiered on 18 August 2012 at the