What if we told you that the best thing you can do for Antarctica is not to visit it?
He says Mario Cuesta Hernando that the earring was not made that sailors used to earn when they crossed drake Pass, that is no longer in style. Nor was he baptized with the name of any Antarctic animal in the oceanographic ship Hesperides, something that does take, because you can not have everything.
That all would be the images and information with which this journalist returned from Antarctica to shape the original documentary Antarctica: a message from another planet (Movistar and Filmin) and Antarctica (Mosquito Books), a disclosure story written as a journey, with some adventure and a lot of surprises. Because, as the subtitle of it says, Antarctica is "the continent of wonders".
The sailors who crossed in front of Cape Horn earned the right to wear an earring on their left ear
Over there animals don't run away from humans, the lowest temperature on the planet has been recorded (-93 ºC); The blue whale, the largest living being that has ever existed (more than the dinosaurs), lives in its waters during the summer; on the surface, the strongest wind on the planet blows, which can reach 300 km/h and has its own name, Catabatic; Y for 60 years it has been shown that peace, international cooperation, the promotion of science and the protection of the environment are not utopian.
“It was very exciting because, after three days crossing the Drake, they told us that we would arrive in Antarctica at five in the morning. By four o'clock we were already leaning on the deck. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick that it was impossible to see more than a hundred meters. We got the smell of guano from a penguin colony. That meant we were close, but the wall was still around. And suddenly, the fog lifted.
This is how Mario remembers his arrival in Antarctica and the privilege of seeing for the first time this continent where he spent six months, between November and April, coinciding with the summer of the southern hemisphere. He lived with researchers from various countries at the Juan Carlos I scientific base, one of the two that Spain has on this continent.
Antarctica is home to different species of whales during the summer
“Work, work, work”, Mario sums up his day-to-day. “You don't go to Antarctica often, so from the time we got up until we went to bed we didn't stop recording, planning, talking to researchers to extract information... And be open to the unpredictable.
That means being open, for example, to a sudden change in weather, to the fact that the expedition in which you participate does not find the algae it needs and you have to keep looking; to spend more time than expected on a beach because some sea lions have insisted on playing or to stop the boat because a whale is passing just below.
The purest nature doing its thing. Something that Mario was especially impressed with and made him think a lot about the damage we have inflicted on the rest of the planet. “How much have we lost in the rest of the planet. Such a pure nature purifies you. That feeling is constant, you feel purified. (…) And how nice the feeling of isolation is. Stay away from everything."
They know a lot about that male Emperor Penguins, the only ones left in Antarctica during the winter and that, in exchange for enduring temperatures that would freeze anyone's soul, they receive the reward of seeing how the auroras australis play in the sky.
With no pollution, Antarctica is the best place in the world to study how the Earth works
It imposes and attracts. So much so that the debate that boils in the head of any person willing to adventure It is whether to go and see to believe or if, better, leave in peace what is one of the last virgin corners of the world.
“Antarctic Treaty delegates are just debating that this year. Last year it went from 40,000 tourists to 75,000. That trend is worrying. Until now the regulation was not very rigorous, but They will have to set limitations. So whoever is very interested in going, go (get in line). But it would be a shame to destroy that paradise for the eccentricity of visiting the only virgin corner of the planet, for making us the selfie that no one has or for being the coolest of the group. It shouldn't be an amusement park. Perhaps that could be a good condition for the Antarctic tourist: forbidden to go with a camera”, Mario reflects.
We can always dream it in the delicious illustrations of Rachel Martin for this book, she who explains that out of so much black, gray and blue she lost count of the shades she used.
“From the beginning it was a project that I loved and I got down to it with great enthusiasm, although also feeling a bit of responsibility to faithfully transmit the different aspects that are dealt with in the book about this incredible continent”, she explains to Traveler.es
She says that in the creation process she has learned a lot about this continent and that, now, it awakens mixed feelings in her.
“I have discovered that it is a very special place in many ways and especially from the point of view of ecology. It is a place that needs to be protected and that unfortunately means that many of us probably should never set foot there. And that's fine too." she concludes it.
Cover of the book 'Antarctica. The continent of wonders'