Forty years ago an ambitious bunch of men from seven different countries took on a challenge deemed impossible. To sail three wooden rafts across 14,000 kilometres from Ecuador to Australia. Expedition Las Balsas. They wanted to prove that in ancient times hundreds, if not thousands, of indigenous people from South America could have navigated across the Pacific and made a life over here.

In 1973, with only stars to guide them, expedition leader Vital Alsar set off with 11 men, three monkeys and three kittens from the port of Guayaquil. Before reaching the ocean, he answered his critics.

"If you want to do something extraordinary, something different, you must put all your heart into it. I am not afraid of critics or people who say that what I am doing is impossible. We are doing something that everyone would like to do. That is the biggest satisfaction in the world. To have an idea and turn it into reality"....