This amazingly sturdy boat held more than 20 of us as we visited a few of the Uros Islands. The construction of these boats is remarkably similar to reed boats once used on the Nile river in Egypt. In the 1940's, Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl developed a theory that there was some sort of cultural exchange between Africa and South America, and he build a series of boats to test his theory. In 1970, Thor and his crew sailed a reed boat from Morocco to Central America, carrying no supplies, but living off the sea as they went, proving that the journey was possible at least.