site.btaBulgarian Community in Comodoro Rivadavia to Welcome Research Vessel Crew

Members of the Bulgarian community in the southern Argentine city of Comodoro Rivadavia are expected to welcome officially the crew and scientists of the research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) on Tuesday, February 24. The official delegation for the reception is expected to include the city’s Deputy Mayor Maximiliano Sampaoli and the Chair of the Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian Society, Tsenka Genova.

RSV 421 left Antarctica on February 17 and arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia on February 23, one day ahead of schedule.

On Tuesday, the Central Hall of the Cultural Centre in Comodoro Rivadavia will host an exhibition titled Yesterday and Today, featuring historical and contemporary photographs, alongside an exhibition of drawings and paintings by the group Metoditos. A performance of Bulgarian music and dance will also take place, featuring the Metoditos and Kirilcheta dance ensembles and the musical group Orpheus. Special performances will be given by Viento Sureno and Javier Masa.

Around 2,000 descendants of Bulgarian immigrants live in Comodoro Rivadavia. The city is home to the Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian Society, founded in 1989 with the main aim of bringing together descendants of Bulgarians who settled in Argentina in the 1930s. The society includes the folk dance ensemble Kirilcheta and the music group Orpheus, which perform at celebratory events organized by the Bulgarian community and present Bulgarian culture and traditions to the wider Argentine public.

Comodoro Rivadavia is the largest city in the central part of the San Jorge Gulf coast. It has a population of around 180,000 and is the largest city in the Chubut province, located in the Argentine part of Patagonia. Founded in 1901, the city is named after Commodore Martin Rivadavia, a key figure in the development of southern Argentina. Following the discovery of oil in the area in 1907, many immigrants, including Bulgarians, arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia to work in the oil fields and in the refinery built in 1922. A 1,770-kilometre gas pipeline was later constructed to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

RSV 421 set sail for Antarctica on November 7, 2025, from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Varna.

BTA has had a national press club on board the vessel since 2022. In February 2024, the national news agency also opened one at the Bulgarian Antarctic Base on Livingston Island. The two press clubs exist thanks to the free support of the RSV 421 crew and of the Bulgarian base, which have provided the necessary premises. These are added to BTA's other 41 press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and countries with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile called National Book Press Club).

The reports of BTA’s special correspondents from RSV 421 and from Antarctica are freely accessible in a special thematic section of the news agency’s website, entitled “Bulgaria-Antarctica BTA's Log,” in Bulgarian and English, and may be used freely by all media with attribution to BTA. According to BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, thanks to its special correspondents the agency appears among the first results in a Google search for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.