Marabio Base, Antarctica: Argentina's base on Antarctica is more like a commune than a barracks. The 36 members of the Argentine Air Force stationed here all eat the same food, take turns washing dishes and clean their own clothing, regardless of rank.

Everyone has everything they need right here and they have it in the same measure, said nurse Roxana Lucero. If there's beer, there's beer for everyone, and if there's coffee, there's coffee for everyone. The Marambio base is bare-bones, isolated and, outside, it's brutally cold. Argentina maintains it for research and to support a claim to part of Antarctica, which a 1959 treaty reserved for peaceful and scientific pursuits.

Sporadic flights by a transport plane are the only lifeline, and the isolation has relaxed the rigid hierarchy of the military. At a routine post-breakfast line-up, the senior officer asks, in a stern voice, if anyone has problems to report. A crew member replies in an exaggarated small voice: I am homesick, sir and the team bursts into laughter.

"You can't do things as you would elsewhere because life here would be very difficult," said Air Vice Commodore Ricardo Valladares, the base commander. "You have to try to make life together as pleasant as possible. So a lot of things are permitted here that would be unthinkable outside." A Hercules cargo plane flies in a few times a month in the summer, but in winter, when the weather is bad, more than a month can pass without a flight. It brings supplies and letters, and sometimes researchers or families.

Hector Arguello, a noncommissioned officer, is waiting for his wife and three children to arrive for a brief visit. Their journey included a 10-hour bus trip, a four-hour plane ride to southern Argentina, and a two-day wait before weather conditions allowed the Hercules to fly to Antarctica. As the plane carrying the Arguellos circled above the base, thick clouds obscured the view of the runway and the pilot considered turning back.

Finally he was able to land. The people waiting at the base heard the aircraft, but could see it only moments before it hit the runway. "We can never say they've arrived until the Hercules actually touches ground," Arguello said.

Antarctica is estimated to hold 90 per cent of the world's ice, and thus most of its freshwater reserves. But a desert mentality prevails at Marambio, where water is strictly rationed. During the summer months, water is pumped from an artificial lake that is replenished by snow -- as long as the climate cooperates.

But in the winter, melting snow for water is hard work and requires a special diesel fuel that has a lower freezing point than normal.

The task, in minus 40 degree Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures, is very demanding, Valladares said. We have to haul the machines outside, get people out to gather snow.

A five-minute shower is normally allowed once a day. Base residents can clean their clothing only once a week, and dishes are washed by dipping them into soapy water and then rinsing them in another filled sink while the tap stays shut, a novelty for water-rich Argentines.

The people staying at Marambio also grow more susceptible to disease because their defenses weaken. There are fewer viruses and bacteria in Antarctica and when the Hercules lands, it always brings people who are carriers, said Lucero, the base nurse. At least half the crew gets a cold.

Several people at the base compared the experience to the television reality show Big Brother: they are isolated, they have to share everything, they don't need money, and they go through a long selection process. The only difference, according to base dwellers, is that they are paid less than the inmates on Big Brother, and they don't get famous.

Another difference is that anybody who wants to can leave the television show. But at Marambio, it's the Hercules that decides.

Source : UNI