Spaniard Álvaro de Marichalar is sailing with his jet ski on the coasts of Cuba, during this week’s stopover of his voyage to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first trip around the world of Magallanes and Elcano.
After arriving Monday to the city of Baracoa from Haiti, and escorted by professionals from the Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba, Marichalar stopped at several places on the Cuban coast until he reached Cayo Guillermo, on the island’s central north coast.
https://t.co/37enTioPMz#1519WorldTour2019
Sigo adelante en mi Vuelta al Mundo conmemorativa del V Centenario de la Primera Circunnavegación conseguida por Juan Sebastián de Elcano, iniciada por Fernando de Magallanes y organizada por SM el Rey Carlos I de España: 1519-2019 pic.twitter.com/9VudJjNGJI
— Alvaro de Marichalar (@DeMarichalar) December 25, 2019
From there he began a journey to Havana this Friday, where he plans to arrive at dawn on Saturday.
“Arriving in Cuba is very important in this journey, because it means honoring a sister nation, like all Latin America but perhaps more, because of the temporary proximity,” said the 58-year-old navigator and businessman from Navarra.
Coinciding with the historical date of the 500 years of the first circumnavigation, Marichalar began his peculiar trip around the world on jet ski on August 10 in Seville, and it will take him approximately two and a half years, he said.
His traveling concern has led him in this new project to go around the world to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first trip around the world.
The navigator recalled that this challenge was backed in 1519 by King Carlos I of Spain and was led by Fernando de Magallanes until his death in the Philippines and completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano in 1522.
Marichalar’s trip is in its fourth stage after having completed the previous three between the Iberian Peninsula and the Caribbean in the last months, crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
After Cuba, his stops will continue in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
In Panama, the fifth stage will begin, taking him to Alaska, then Russia, Japan, China and the Philippines, to finish touring the rest of Asia before entering the Mediterranean to Seville.