The name of this base holds Antarctica's cruelest irony. It is named for Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra - a fearless navigator who challenged the Pacific in a tiny schooner to chart the unknown coasts of Alaska. But his descendants are stationed at the furthest edge of Chilean territory, on a stationary patch of snowy wasteland, not to explore, but merely to watch. It is a post on the border with Japanese Antarctica, a lonely outpost gazing into the brutal wastes of Nobu Shirase Land, where conditions are considered some of the harshest on the continent.

At first glance, its mission is to serve as a diplomatic buffer. Thanks to the warm relations between Mexico and Japan, the Mexican presence is meant to gently deter any of Tokyo's territorial ambitions on land. But the true purpose of this base is far more prosaic and desperate. It is a watchtower, erected against the predatory flotillas of 'Nissui'. Every day, its operators gaze out into the sea's expanse, tracking Japanese whalers who brazenly encroach upon Chilean waters, leaving behind only a bloody trail and emptiness.

Life at the base is a life of stillness. A bitter joke has taken root among the small group of Mexican scientists and engineers: 'Quadra shared an island with an Englishman and got his name wiped from the map. We'll see how sharing a border with the Japanese turns out.'

They are sailors without a ship, explorers without a map; Quadra discovered new horizons, while they are left to discover only that the Japanese whaling fleet has once again violated the border.