On August 29 at the administration of the port of Vigo a meeting was held with the team of the round-the-world expedition Russian Ocean Way with the Spanish traveler and extreme sportsman Alvaro de Marichalar. The travelers talked about their round-the-world expeditions and discussed the possibility of a joint stage. Head of the Coastal Center Yulia Kalyuzhnaya told the meeting about the mission of public diplomacy.
Vigo is an important port and industrial city in northwestern Spain, the largest in Galicia. It was the place where the meeting of travelers from Russia and Spain took place on August 29. The ceremony was held at 11:30 a.m. at the port of the trimaran. Here crew members Eugene Kovalevskiy and Stanislav Berezkin demonstrated the elements of the ship. Then the participants went to the port administration conference room where the presentation of the international project Russian Ocean Way was held.
The program of the meeting was opened by the head of the Coastal Expedition Center and a member of the Federal Commission Russian Geographical Society for Tourism Development, Julia Kalyuzhnaya, who presented her author’s tour program on Siberia “Golden Ring of Siberia” (We discover Siberia). Speaking on behalf of the Tomsk branch of the Russian Geographical Society and Tomsk State University, Julia noted the necessity to develop multilateral relations between Spain and Siberia – in academic and scientific environment as well as in the tourism industry.
The President of the Port Authority Jesús Vázquez Almuña greeted Alexander Korchagin, Counselor of the Russian Embassy in Spain, and Pedro Mourinho, Honorary Consul of Russia in Galicia, also addressed the meeting.
The famous Spanish traveler Alvaro de Marichalar told about his current round-the-world aqua-bike expedition and offered the Siberian people to unite at one of the stages of the round-the-world expedition. Alvaro has already made more than 39 extreme journeys, during one of which in Getaria he set three flags – Spanish, Portuguese and Russian – near the monument to Juan Sebastian Elcano, (who led the expedition after Magellan’s death). According to the traveler, Russia is a country he has been indifferent to for many years.
Alvaro de Marichalar
Elizaveta Shaimbaeva
