500 years ago, ended the famous voyage of Ferdinand Magellan, which remains in history as the first circumnavigation of the world. A Spanish thrill-seeker and traveler, and, more recently, a member of the Tomsk Branch of the Russian Geographical Society Alvaro de Marichalar decided to repeat it, now on a jet ski.
Marichalar’s expedition started in 2019, but the coronavirus pandemic made its own adjustments, and the journey had to be suspended. During the first attempt, the travelers managed to cover one of the three major parts of the route – to cross the Atlantic Ocean and get from the Spanish Seville to the American Port of Miami.
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The journey resumed at the end of winter 2022. Alvaro timed the start of the voyage to the 76th anniversary of the founding of the Tomsk Branch of the RGS – February 19.
So here we have Magellan, Spain, the Atlantic, a jet ski. But what does the Russian city of Tomsk have to do with it? This is a separate story. In July 2021, travelers Evgeny Kovalevsky and Stanislav Berezkin went on an expedition on a trimaran along the route of the first Russian round-the-world expeditions of the 19th century. The Tomsk Regional Branch of the RGS organized the new circumnavigation.
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One of the locations on their route was the port in Spanish Galicia. It was there that our brave navigators met de Marichalar, who was extremely close to them in spirit. He was very surprised that people from faraway Siberia set out to circumnavigate the world. And decided to go to Tomsk himself, where the interregional RGS festival "Rediscovering Russia with the Whole Family" was just taking place. And there he accepted an invitation to join the regional branch. Now there are flags of the RGS and Russia on board his Numancia jet ski.
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Альваро де Маричалар на встрече в Томском реготделении РГО. Фото: Диана БарашковаAlvaro de Marichalar y Saenz de Tejada is an extreme traveler, holder of 14 world records, member of the Spanish Royal Academy of the Sea, member of the Tomsk Branch of the Russian Geographical Society since January 2022. As a means of transportation, Alvaro uses a three-meter jet ski. Under his belt, he has 39 extreme expeditions in over 40 years of traveling around the world. Now he wants to set a world record: no one has ever circumnavigated the world on such a small (only 3m long) watercraft as a jet ski.
In February 2022, Alvaro de Marichalar resumed his expedition, interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, from Miami. In a little more than six months, the traveler visited the cities of the USA and Mexico, simultaneously giving motivational lectures at all ports of call: in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, on Anna Maria Island, in Texas, and Mexico up to the Mexican city of Bacalar, where he is now.
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Alvaro keeps a diary in which he describes his unusual journey in detail. He shared with us the details of his stay on the island of Cozumel.
"I decided to sail directly to the island, which the Maya called ‘the island of swallows’. The first few miles passed quietly, until I got into a current rushing through the sea, where there were a lot of sargassaceae algae. I always try to avoid them, but when I fail, I have to dive into the sea to pull the algae out of the turbine. Finally, at 5:30 in the morning, I reached the island of Cozumel," the traveler wrote.
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Cozumel is an island in the Caribbean Sea, located near the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. For the Maya Indians, Cozumel has been and remains a mystical place of pilgrimage since the 6th century, the dwelling of the goddess of abundance and fertility Ixchel. In addition, Cozumel is the cradle of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. It was the first Mexican territory upon which Hernan Cortez set foot in February 1519.
Upon arrival on the island, Alvaro was offered to perform an ancient Mayan purification ceremony, which included communicating with a shaman and applying ritual patterns to the face. The inhabitants of the mysterious island blessed the man for further sailing and, according to the traveler, charged him with the unique energy of the descendants of the great Indigenous peoples.
"It was a great honor for me. Something very special, exciting, and important for me and for them," Marichalar shared.
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Having received such a powerful emotional charge, Alvaro, as usual, decided not to remain in debt and shared something positive in return. The man visited a local rehabilitation center for prisoners, where he gave a motivational lecture. Alvaro holds similar meetings all over the world in hospitals, prisons, schools, the navy and the army, universities, clubs and many other places, sharing his 40-year experience of overcoming difficulties almost daily.
The expedition of Alvaro de Marichalar "Retracing the Magellan–Elcano Expedition" continues. Barcelona, Lisbon, Florida, Texas, Mexico City, and Cancun are behind, and in the coming days the traveler will set off farther. Over the next few months, he intends to go around the Caribbean countries on the jet ski.
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In addition to the desire to set a world record and honor the memory of the great travelers of the past, Magellan and Elcano, Marichalar says that the purpose of the expedition is to fight against environmental problems of the oceans, in particular with microplastics pollution. And in the intervals between sea crossings, the circumnavigator answers questions from geography lovers online as part of the project of the Tomsk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society "Lessons from the Ocean".
500 year ago: Magellan's circumnavigation
The world's first circumnavigation of the globe by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastian Elcano is considered one of the greatest achievements of mankind. It began on September 20, 1519, and ended on September 6, 1522. The original goal – to repeat the idea of Columbus – was achieved. But the price was great.
Having survived harsh natural conditions, shipwrecks, mutinies, and diseases, as well as taking part in military operations, most of the crew was lost. Of the nearly 300 participants of the expedition, 18 returned home, and the same number returned from captivity five months later. Three ships out of five were lost.
During a confrontation with the natives on Mactan Island (Cebu Province, Philippines), Magellan himself was killed. The rest of the route was led by Juan Sebastian Elcano.
The result of Magellan's historic expedition was the discovery of the western route from Europe to Asia. The circumnavigation proved that the Earth has the shape of a sphere, and the oceans are interconnected. In addition, the expedition discovered a strait, later called the Strait of Magellan, and the coast of South America south of the Gulf of La Plata. Magellan was the first to circumnavigate America from the south and crossed the Pacific Ocean, discovering three islands from the Mariana Islands group, including Guam and Rota. The travelers became the first Europeans to visit the Philippine Islands.
Elizaveta Shaimbayeva
Aivar Valeev