In Memoriam

T year 1994 was coming to an end when I received a call from a researcher from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) asking me if I could spend the next two months working on a project on penguins in Antarctica. It seemed like a joke, but it wasn’t. The principal investigator of the research project, Juan Moreno, had suddenly felt unwell and had to return to Spain to go to the doctor. It was difficult to find a substitute willing to embark on a trip to the extreme south of the world in just a few days and with availability during that time. The search had proved fruitless until my thesis advisor, Jaime Potti, who was in Antarctica collaborating on the project, suggested my name. He could not stay longer since he had to attend his classes at the University of Alcalá de Henares so, despite my inexperience, I was “the candidate”. Lali Moreno, the researcher at the other end of the phone, gave me the instructions to acquire the necessary equipment for such an adventure. Before I could realise it, I was crossing the Atlantic in a plane bound for Punta Arenas, in southern Chile. There I met Juan and Jaime, who embarked me on the ship Hesperides, ready to sail to Deception Island. A few days later the ship entered the inner bay of the small horseshoeshaped island, and we saw the buildings of the Spanish Antarctic Base “Gabriel de Castilla”. The material and personnel that had to disembark at the base were transferred in a zodiac. I remember perfectly how we stood on that dark pyroclastic sand that revealed the volcanic Ardeola 70(2), 2023, 141-150 DOI: 10.13157/arla.70.2.2023.im