Global Topspeaker Dominique Goerlitz builds ABORA IV boat in Bolivia
Yet, Dominique Goerlitz had to wait two months longer than planned for this new stage of his ABORA IV expedition. Due to severe flooding at Lake Titicaca, the building phase had to be postponed. In mid-July, however, the “German Indiana Jones“ could finally travel to Bolivia where the Bolivian foreign minister, Fernando Huanacuni, welcomed him with open arms and immediately invited him to give a public lecture at his Ministry in the capital of La Paz. In a full house and in front of an enthusiastic audience, the inspiring lecturer spoke about the impact of pre-Columbian agriculture and its crops, for instance potatoes, tomatoes and corn, on the new world. Due to the fact that his interpreter became unavailable on short notice, multilingual Goerlitz delivered his speech entirely in Spanish.
From La Paz, Dominique Goerlitz and his team then travelled to the ABORA IV’s building site in Huatajata on Lake Titicaca. There, they are now being supported by the Aymara Indians who had already provided Goerlitz with their unique expertise in building reed boats on earlier expeditions and also helped the well-known experimental archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl. On site, the motto now is to make sheaves and mats of reeds and to construct a wooden frame for the boat’s rigging. Compared to Goerlitz’s previous projects, the ABORA IV will be about two metres longer and the cabins a bit larger as well, so that the entire team can seek shelter there in case of a storm.
By the end of the year, all the components manufactured in Bolivia and weighing several tons are to be transported to Russia. For Dominique Goerlitz intends to set sail with the new reed boat from the Russian harbour city of Sochi. From there, he will cross the Black Sea to Istanbul and then sail on towards the Dardanelles and the former Troy. Many scientists doubt that this trade route from the Neolithic Age, also called the „Silk Road of the North“, really existed. Nevertheless and despite difficult passages, the Global Topspeaker wants to demonstrate that this sea route had already been possible 6,000 or even 8,000 years ago, just as old archaeological findings from the time suggest.
For further information and current reports on Dominique Goerlitz’s expedition, please go to: www.abora.eu