Vital Alsar Pacific raft expeditions that ancient mariners knew the Pacific currents and winds as well as modern humans know road maps. It was hoped to double the distance achieved by the Kon-Tiki expedition, the 1947 raft crossing by Thor Heyerdahl from South America to the Polynesian islands. Like the Kon-Tiki expedition, the aim was to see if a raft made from the materials available in the 16th century in pre-Columbian South America, when such vessels had been observed by Spanish sailors, could navigate the journey. Having been surprised by the seaworthiness of La Balsa, being confident they could have gone on to reach Africa
Eduard Ingris Eduard Ingris Eduard Ingriš () (February 11, 1905 – January 11, 1991) was a Czech-American composer, photographer, conductor and adventurer. Born in Zlonice in Bohemia (then-Austro-Hungary, now Czech Republic), Ingriš left Czechoslovakia in 1947 for South America, living in Brazil and Peru. In 1955 and 1959 he organized the Kantuta and Kantuta II raft voyages and sailed across the Pacific, in similar style to Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-tiki. While Ingriš' travels spanned the globe and his talents led him through several careers, his first love was always music. He wrote the first arrangement of the famous "Beer Barrel Polka", after Jaromír