site.btaSecond Group of 32nd Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition Leaves for Chile's Punta Arenas

The second group of the 32nd National Antarctic Expedition departed on December 29 from Sofia Airport for Rome en route to Buenos Aires, Rio Gallegos and Punta Arenas, Prof. Christo Pimpirev, head of the expedition and Chairman of the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, told BTA. He was at the airport to see off the expedition.

The second group consists of geologist Kalin Naydenov, electrical engineer Krasimir Krastev, Marina Velikova, a musician working on an acoustic project, logistician Alexander Nedyalkov and Mount Everest conquerors Kiril Doskov and Assoc. Prof. Doychin Boyanov.

The two mountaineers will support geological studies of previously unexplored parts of Antarctica, Pimpirev told BTA. They will be involved as field assistants in an ambitious project studying the geological composition and history of the extremely hard to reach Smith Island, adjacent to the Bulgarian base. The island is the highest in the South Shetland archipelago.

From the Chilean port of Punta Arenas, located north of the Strait of Magellan, the second group will sail to the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island on January 1, on board the Brazilian research vessel Almirante Maximiano.

The first group of the expedition, which left for Argentina's Ushuaia on December 27, is already on board the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii. "The polar researchers boarded the ship but the weather in the Drake Passage is very blustery and there are huge waves, so the ship is riding at anchor in Ushuaia," Pimpirev said.

He told BTA he himself would be leaving for Antarctica in late January.