Balsa Fishing

The Balsa raft could travel as far as the islands of Polynesia, 4000 miles away. When Francisco Pizarro left the Panama Isthmus in 1526 on his second voyage of discovery down the Pacific coast of South America; his expedition found Peruvian merchants sailors at sea long before he discovered their country.  The Manteño were a West-Ecuadorean maritime culture flourishing between the 800's and 1526AD.  As early as 2400 B.C. the people of coastal Ecuador began to voyage on the ocean.  The Manteño were mainly fishermen. They built small houses and rafts made of wood, and crafts in ngold and silver. Their religion was based on a cult of snake, the jaguar or puma, and the goddess Umina, who was represented by a large emerald.