Kon-Tiki2 days at sea due to difficult weather conditions. By then, the rafts had sailed halfway to South America. All crew members were taken aboard a Japanese freighter, and later transported to shore by the Chilean Armada. Expedition leader Torgeir Higraff chose to terminate the expedition to avoid risking the life of crew members. The expedition built and sailed two balsawood rafts: "Rahiti Tane" and "Tupac Yupanqui". The rafts were similar to the "Kon-Tiki" raft built by Thor Heyerdahl in 1947. Like the "Kon-Tiki", "Rahiti Tane" and "Tupac Yupanqui" were built from balsawood transported from Ecuador to SIMA, the Peruvian Army's
Thor Heyerdahl between widely separated ancient people, notably the "Ra II" expedition of 1970, when he sailed from the west coast of Africa to Barbados in a papyrus reed boat. He was appointed a government scholar in 1984. In May 2011, the Thor Heyerdahl Archives were added to UNESCO's "Memory of the World" Register. At the time, this list included 238 collections from all over the world. The Heyerdahl Archives span the years 1937 to 2002 and include his photographic collection, diaries, private letters, expedition plans, articles, newspaper clippings, original book, and article manuscripts. The Heyerdahl Archives are administered by the Kon-Tiki