Thor Heyerdahl the voyage of Kon-Tiki

Thor heyedendal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)

My definition of a hero is someone who has a goal, a cause or a purpose which they have to complete. There is a problem which they have to overcome. Thor Heyerdahl is a hero to me because he had a theory and his problem was most people didn't think it was possible. His theory was that the people in the Polynesian islands came from Peru. People didn't believe him because they didn't think that the early people could possibly make boats. But they did and Thor Heyerdahl proved it.

Thor Heyerdahl was born on October 6th, 1914 in Larvik, Norway. He died in Italy on April 18th, 2002. He had a scientific background and was a student of Polynesia which inspired him to sail on the Kon-Tiki Expedition in which he sailed 4,300 miles on a raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. He had a brief story of his expedition in a magazine. He said this about his picture in the magazine: "Feeling like a king, I could actually put an ancient Marquesan royal crown on my head for the occasion. Or was I the first hippy?"

Thor Heyedahl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl)

Thor Heyerdahl claimed that in Incan legend that the son of the sun-god named Con-Tici Viracocha who was the supreme head of the group of white people there, and that the group of darker skinned people were going to kill them all. So Con-Tici and a bunch of the white people jumped on the rafts to run away. The current carried them to the Polynesian islands. One group caught a current up to Hawaii, and that is how the stone people got on Easter Island and other places.

The characteristics of a hero that Thor Heyerdahl represents are courage, confidence, daring, bravery, and determination. He shows this by actually backing up his theory by trying out crossing the Pacific on a raft. He made it with 3 other guys, 2 Norwegians and one Swede. They saw some strange things on their trip. The sea creatures would come look at them and you have to wonder what the crew thought when the creatires came up out of the water and they didn’t know what the sea creatures were.

Kon-Tiki raft

His expedition has made an impact on my life. The inspiration we can get from Thor Heyerdahl is that if you have come up with something in your head, and people question it you, should prove it any way possible.