Our Pirogue
Bora Kontiki lagoon and his pirogue Lorita are a tribute to a crazy adventure born in the dreams of a lover of Marquesas and in a Tuamotu legend.
The Kon-Tiki
The Kon-TIki is a raft, built by Thor Heyerdahl, a Swedish anthropologist, who crossed through the Pacific Ocean with it from Peru to Tuamotus (Raroia Atoll), sailing 8000 km within 101 days in 1947, which nowadays is exhibited in the Kon-Tiki Museum at Oslo.
The Kon-TIki is a raft, built by Thor Heyerdahl, a Swedish anthropologist, who crossed through the Pacific Ocean with it from Peru to Tuamotus (Raroia Atoll), sailing 8000 km within 101 days in 1947, which nowadays is exhibited in the Kon-Tiki Museum at Oslo.
The crew was composed of 6 men and Lorita – a parrot, the mascot of expedition.
The legend
Thor Heyerdahl heard from a native of Tuamotus talking about Tiki, son of the Sun, the ancestor of the Polynesians who arrived this island with his tribe by crossing through the sea from a faraway country in the East.
Several years later, T.H. found the other history of Kon-Tiki, King of the Sun, a divine chief of the people, who have skin that is of a white colour, from Titicaca Lake in Peru. Having been purchased by his enemies, he ran away with his people by sailing straight towards the West.
For T.H., these two gods are nothing but a single and unique character.
With this doubtful theory, he decided to experiment himself with a raft, made of balsa logs and ropes, taking traditional Indian boat as model, and a pole of mango tree as oar.
During the journey, the occupants of the raft survived by fishing and by collecting rainwater.