The Adventurer Paul Harmon

Archaeologist Alexei Vranich has been leading digs in the ruins of Tiwanaku, Bolivia for 10 years now. This mysterious city sits at 13,000 feet above sea level near the shores of the World's highest navigable lake, Titicaca. For centuries it has been a mystery as to how the massive stones in the pyramids could have been transported from quarries across the lake, close to a 100 miles away. Adventurer Paul Harmon has lead projects in Latin America for years. He and Alexei first teamed up in 2002 to test Alexei's theory. Using only ancient means they built a 55-foot boat of reeds with a team of Aymara Indians. Paul skippered the vessel across the ocean-like lake to the quarries where they loaded a 9-ton stone, the weight of 7 small cars, onto the reed boat, then sailed it to the shores nearest the ruins of Tiwanaku. It was during this project that Paul and Alexei first used the Suunto Vector. It not only survived the harsh conditions, but also provided them with important altitude information, including ascent and descent rates and totals as they surveyed up and down sacred mountains to 19,000 feet.

Alexei and Paul teamed up again for a film project in Costa Rica. They were so impressed with the Suunto Vector that they used it to help them "debunk" the mysteries of Costa Rica's ancient stone spheres. The film, "Debunked - The Secrets of the Stone Spheres", has been airing on The Discovery Channel and The Science Channel for the past several years.

In order to continue the adventure Paul created a company, Sailmate Adventures, dedicated to "a lifetime of adventures of a lifetime". In the Summer of 2006 they teamed up again, this time to produce their own film in high definition. Paul's brother, Dan Harmon, also joined them for this informative, humorous, competitive, "real" adventure. Dan, a World-class athlete and a dive-master, has been using the Suunto Stinger for years diving the waters of Southeast Asia and was the one to introduce Paul to Suunto. Dan even argued that Paul had an unfair advantage using the Suunto X9i in this latest, "Reed Boats - The Vanishing Art". You be the judge, when the story later continues in these pages. The characters and personalities are real, the story unscripted, and you will feel the adventure as you follow their story. You can also follow the progress of the film at www.thedig.org.

By accident or fate Paul has become an expert on reed boats. As a result he returned to Bolivia in late 2006 for more reed boat adventure with a guest appearance on The History Channel's most successful series, "Digging for the Truth". Host Josh Bernstein has traveled the World exploring ancient mysteries. Be on the lookout in 2007 for this episode to see what Paul and Josh get into. Which Suunto does Paul take with him? Hmmm...