site.btaMembers of 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition Receive Post at Base on Livingston Island

The members of the 34th Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition at the Bulgarian Antarctic base on Livingston Island Friday received postcards sent from home. Earlier in the day, the last group of the expedition disembarked at the base from the Bulgarian naval research ship Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421).

The ship had previously transported ten Spanish scientists to the Spanish Antarctic bases Gabriel de Castilla and Juan Carlos I, as well as cargo consisting of nine crates, nine bags, two pallets, and two bags of the scientists' personal luggage.

Friday's water projects at the Bulgarian base were cancelled due to rough seas, but projects in the area around the base were carried out.

Biotechnologist Kiril Kandilarov told BTA about his joint project with the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute to test Bulgarian Antarctic researchers before, during, and after their stay in Antarctica.

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7, 2025. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata on December 13.

BTA has had a national press club on board the ship since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024. BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said they exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. These two press clubs are added to the news agency’s other 41 national press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and in nations with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile National Book Press Club). 

The news items of BTA's special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media, with attribution to BTA. Valchev recalled that thanks to its correspondents, the news agency appears among the top results on Google when searching for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.