I wish the writing wasn’t so dry and uninteresting and I could give it 5 stars for the epic journey these landlubbers undertook on a raft, crossing a continent of ocean. The pictures helped otherwise and if you don’t know a lot about boats and rafts and sailing like me, this is going to be a tough but somewhat rewarding read.

”Good day, Terai Mateata and your men, who have come across the sea on a pae-pae to us on Raroia; yes, good day, may you remain long among us and share memories with us so that we can always be together, even when you go away to a far and. Good day.”

Adventure books are a weakness of mine. It started with arctic expedition books, and is rapidly branching off to encompass anything harrowing and true that man has attempted. Cave diving, mountain climbing, shipwrecks, and now, evidently, balsa raft journeys taken across the sea to prove a point. I, too, am stubborn.

Thor Heyerdahl had a theory that the Polynesian people originated from South America. He presented his theory, well researched and thought out, and was resoundingly dismissed as being impossible. Rather than take his lumps and go home, he….built his own balsa raft, crewed it, and did the thing they said was impossible. Checkmate, doubters. This book is his story, told by him, and encompasses the roots of the journey all the way up through the fruits of his labor. We get a first-hand account of his harrowing sea voyage, which was equal parts idyllic and dangerous, and all the sea wildlife they encounter along the way. We also get quite a bit of Polynesian history, and Thor’s theory about where their people came from.

Thor was a great writer, and this was a compelling book. His descriptive writing made me feel like I was there, and I loved his tongue-in-cheek humor about many aspects of his own journey. Departing accidentally without most of his crewmates because of the language barrier was one of my favorite parts.

There's definitely some dated language used here, referencing the many peoples Thor comes across in getting his boat together and sailing across the world. The language and words used wouldn't fly today, but this book was written in 1948, and I know this is a phrase used to hand-wave things away, but things were different then. I'm sure if Thor did this stuff today, he'd use different phrasings and see things differently. I don't think it detracts from the experience, and he genuinely seems to enjoy everyone he comes across. I don't think any of it was used in a derogatory fashion. I only mention it here in reference to the 1 star reviews I see left here from people.

Highly recommend this book to anyone else who enjoys a good, true, adventure story. There’s evidently a movie I’m definitely going to check out next.

This is possibly the coolest thing a person could do - build a primitive raft and sail it across the Pacific Ocean to prove your theory that primitive peoples could have done the same thing. There's more than enough risk involved, but with a dash of technology you can try to let people know where your are along your way. Other than that you're pretty much on your own in uncharted territory. It may not be the case but I feel like Heyerdahl and his crew were some of the last great explorers (bound to this earth, anyway) and what they accomplished is incredible to me. As much as I loved reading about their journey, however, I think my favorite part was the last chapter when they finally reached land and the people whose forebears they were trying to emulate. It was tender. Kon-Tiki has sailed its way onto my favorites list.

Some of my favorite passages:

The civilized world seemed incomprehensibly remote and unreal. We had lived on the island for nearly a year, the only white people there; we had of our will forsaken the good things of civilization along with its evils. We lived in a hut we had built for ourselves, on piles under the palms down by the shore, and ate what tropical woods and the Pacific had to offer us. pgs. 15-16 (When he came up with the idea of the expedition, while living on the island of Fatu Hiva)

The weeks passed. We saw no sign either of a ship or of drifting remains to show that there were other people in the world. The whole sea was ours, and, with all the gates of the horizon open, real peace and freedom were wafted down from the firmament itself. It was as though the fresh salt tang in the air, and all the blue purity that surrounded us, had washed and cleansed both body and soul. To us on the raft the great problems of civilized man appeared false and illusory - like perverted products of the human mind. Only the elements mattered. And the elements seemed to ignore the little raft. Or perhaps they accepted it as a natural object, which did not break the harmony of the sea but adapted itself to current and sea like bird and fish. Instead of being a fearsome enemy, flinging itself at us, the elements had become a reliable friend which steadily and surely helped us onward. While wind and waves pushed and propelled, the ocean current lay under us and pulled, straight toward our goal. pg. 127

Sometimes, too, we went out in the rubber boat to look at ourselves by night. Coal-black seas towered up on all sides, and a glittering myriad of tropical stars drew a faint reflection from plankton in the water. The world was simple - stars in the darkness. Whether it was 1947 BC or AD suddenly became of no significance. We lived, and that we felt with alert intensity. We realized that life had been full for men before the technical age also - in fact, fuller and richer in many ways than the life of modern man. Time and evolution somehow ceased to exist; all that was real and that mattered were the same today as they had always been and would always be. We were swallowed up in the absolute common measure of history - endless unbroken darkness under a swarm of stars. pg. 173

4 stars because this was actually done and accomplished. I liked learning about the culture around Peru and across the sea there. The mens’ creativity while on board was remarkable.

With that said, I’m glad I’m done reading this book. While it only took me four days to read it, each chapter takes over an hour to get through. So it was a big change after reading fast-moving thrillers. It helped me have discipline though.

Heyerdahl does a good job of keeping the reading engaged in the story while reading the facts. Overall a fairly good story, with some good descriptions.