The penultimate group of Bulgarian polar explorers will depart today, January 24, for our base on Livingston Island with an ITA Airways flight to Rome, the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute (BAI) announced. BTA's special correspondent Simona-Alex Mihaleva is also part of it.
In Rome, the group will split into two, with Prof. Hristo Pimpirev - head of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition, Kiril Kandilarov and writer Vasil Popov flying to Buenos Aires (Argentina), where they will be joined by Fleet Admiral Boyan Mednikarov and Captain First Rank Prof. Miroslav Tsvetkov from the Higher Naval School (VVMU) in Varna. The group will then travel to Santiago de Chile and then to Punta Arenas.
The journalists - Zhivko Konstantinov and Simona-Alex Mihaleva, as well as the researchers Assoc. Prof. Stoyan Georgiev from the Geological Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Chief Assistant Prof. Dr. Snezina Rusinova-Videva from the Institute of Microbiology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Plovdiv), will continue their journey via São Paulo (Brazil) to Punta Arenas (Chile). There they will be joined by the journalists from the Bulgarian National Television - Maria Cherneva and Anna Andreeva, Chief Assistant Prof. Dr. Gergana Georgieva from the Faculty of Physics of the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski“ and oceanologist Prof. Emil Stanev from Germany, as well as Greek scientists - Dionysia Rigatou from the University of Athens and Eleni Kitinou from the Institute of Oceanography at the Hellenic Center for Marine Research.
The journey of Prof. Pimpirev's group continues with a flight of the Colombian Air Force aboard the aircraft “Hercules C130” to King George Island, where they will meet again with the second group, which will reach the island with a flight chartered by the Turkish Antarctic Program.
All together will board the Bulgarian research ship “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” and it is expected that in early February they will reach the Bulgarian polar base “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
BTA will have a special correspondent for the fourth consecutive year on board the Bulgarian research ship “St. St. Cyril and Methodius“ (NIK 421) and in the BTA national press club at the Bulgarian Antarctic base.