Going Galápagos—The Post Office Without Stamps

My lovely friends Brian and Katie took a long-awaited trip to the Galápagos Islands a few months back, and they were thrilled to pass on information about the, shall we say, informal 'Post Office' on Floreana Island.

The Galápagos Islands (and the biota living thereupon) are among the most distinctive in the world, straddling the Equator across a span of a couple hundred miles. The archipelago constitutes a province of Ecuador and currently houses 25,000 residents. More significantly, the islands house native species not found anywhere else in the world, and the rich diversity of animal and plant life inspired Charles Darwin's development of the theories of natural selection and evolution. These islands changed our understanding of life as we know it. But I digress.

As always, let's introduce some mappy goodness. Below, the islands are in the left-center of the initial map:



Floreana Island is at the southern end of the archipelago:



And here's a closer view of Floreana Island [bottom of map]—note Post Office Bay!


The Bahía Post Office on Floreana Island has been around since 1793. Back in the day the Galápagos were a stopping point for large whaling vessels. Now imagine: your home country is somewhere in Europe, and here you are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America, half a world away (and the Panama Canal not to be built for another century). Your voyage is not just months but probably multiple years long. The people who invented the telegraph haven't been born yet. So how do you communicate with loved ones?

Well, many whalers pondered this (let's just say they were all in the same boat—hah, get it?). Many of them ended up relying on each other. Galapagos.org writes:

This is one of the few visitor sites in Galapagos where human history is the main focus. A group of whalers placed a wooden barrel here in 1793 and called it a post office. Traveling seamen would leave addressed letters in the barrel and hope that the next seamen to come along might be headed in the direction of their letters’ destinations. Today, visitors leave their own postcards and sift through the current pile of cards—if they find one that they can hand-deliver, they take it with them.

My friend Katie writes that the principle behind the site hasn't changed much...
1. To send a letter: you write a post card, do not put a stamp on it and put it in the mailbox.
2. To deliver a post card: You look through all the post cards in the mailbox and find one that goes somewhere near where you live. You take that post card home and drop it off at their house when you have time.

(I have no idea how long the average item remains in the mailbox or what percentage do actually get delivered. Or if some people just bring it back to their home country and mail it from there.)

Here are some photos by my friend, April 2015; the post office, some signage, and mail barrel:





I have no idea what is going on by the barrel. (Does that head-thing on the right remind anybody else of Donnie Darko??) Unfortunately it appears there has been some graffiti as well. That said, this is definitely unique and utterly cool!

You can read more about the Floreana Island post office here:
The Washington Post: Galapagos island relies on travelers to deliver the mail
Land Loper: The Post Office at the End of the World
Galapagos.org

Bonus: Ecuador's postal service is called Correos del Ecuador and there are other, more traditional, post offices on the Galápagos Islands. Here are some descriptions.

Puerto Ayora, Isla Santa Cruz:
EcuadorExplorer.com: "The main drag, Charles Darwin, runs east-west along the bay. At the westernmost end of town you will find the Academy Bay port, the main grocery store, hardware store and post office." GoVisitGalapagos.com: There is only one bank in town with an ATM machine and the post office is right hear the harbor.

Puerto Villamil, Isla Isabela:
Miami.edu: "Buildings are concrete block, often colorfully painted or sporting murals as on the post office below. As the postmistress is the mother of one of the town’s laundress, when the laundress is out of town, you can pick up your laundry at the post office."

There's are photos of the post office here (fourth photo on the page) and here!

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Isla de San Cristóbal:
Great photo here! "There aren't many places where you can send or receive mail in the Galápagos islands, but on San Cristóbal the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno has a post office."

Postal Bucket List: Hawaii Edition

On this blog I've shared with you some wonderful and unique experiences I've had during my postal adventures around the country. By now I've visited nearly 10% of all USPS facilities: independent post offices, branches and stations, CPUs, annexes, and processing plants; but there is still plenty more to go. What follows is a list of offices to which I've not been, but which, by my understanding, are either in such bizarre locations or otherwise so unique that a visit to them has to be made. So, without further ado, I present to you:

Evan's Postal Bucket List (Part I):
1. Kalaupapa, Hawaii -- the post office of the leper colony

(Photo from local.yahoo.com)

The beautiful and tranquil setting, in a valley along the northern rim of the oft-overlooked island of Molokai, belies a fascinating history. Established in the 1860s, Kalaupapa is the site of what was effectively an island prison: lepers were banished here in accordance with mandatory isolation by Hawaiian King Kamehameha V, and the facility housed as many as 1,200. This held for a century: until 1969, ten years after Hawai'i's becoming a U.S. state, the policy of isolation was still in effect. The site has since become a National Historical Park operated by the National Park Service.

Today, there are still about 14 former sufferers of Hansen's disease living on the site. By law they are allowed to remain there, and it is probable the location will cease once the population dwindles to 0. The post office serves only that population, as access to the site is highly restricted. Access to the valley is granted only to those who take specific tours:

State law requires all individuals to secure a permit to enter from the State Department of Health prior to visiting Kalaupapa. Damien Tours arranges for permits for individuals booking with them. Persons that do not prearrange their visit to the park with Damien Tours (808) 567-6171 will be denied access to the park. [nps.gov]

Last summer, USPS announced the study for closure of the Kalaupapa post office. By December it was determined that the office couldn't be closed, despite the small population served. Even former sufferers of leprosy have the right to universal postal service, too!

My friend, a fellow member of the PMCC, took a tour to the site last January, and notes that while it's possible to photograph the office, access to get a postmark in person is frequently denied so as to prevent interactions of tourists with the town's residents, who have been scarred by leprosy in the past. In this instance tour operators will take philatelic materials to be hand-cancelled at a later date.

This website tells a story of visiting the Kalaupapa P.O. (as well as the actual town) and meeting Ellen, Postmaster Relief, shown below:



2. Hoolehua, Hawaii -- home of the Post-A-Nut service
It's not every post office that gets its own review page on TripAdvisor. Clearly, this place is cool.


(Photo courtesy TripAdvisor.)

The island of Molokai also houses the small town of Hoolehua, the story of which I first read in my Let's Go: Hawaii travel book. The premise is that you can actually mail a coconut, free of packaging, so long as you have a postage/address label affixed to one side.

First, let me validate that yes, you need no packaging (so long as the coconut is not being shipped internationally). Heck, here's a company that lets you order them, slaps a shipping label on them, and puts them in the mail. Coconuts are considered so resilient, and otherwise tamper-proof, that USPS and the Postal Inspection Service will indeed allow a coconut to be mailed free of external packaging. The cost ranged from perhaps $8 to $12, depending on its size.

Now that's cool in and of itself, but the Hoolehua Post Office takes it one step further: they provide the coconuts for shipping themselves. They even have permanent markers that you can write the recipient's address on. Definitely a must-visit.

Here's a photo of some coconuts ripe for the sending at the Hoolehua P.O. (Source)

The guy's got lots of photos of the process on his Flickr page.


3. Post Offices of the Pacific Islands -- way beyond Hawaii
USPS not only administers the mail for Guam and American Samoa, but also for other 'commonwealths in political union with the United States' (the Northern Mariana Islands) and other countries closely associated with the U.S. (the Marshall Islands). They are U.S. Post Offices!

One will note that the Northern Mariana Islands appeared, along with Guam, Puerto Rico, etc., on the Flags of Our Nation stamps (image by USPS):


My lovely friend and her husband, a Marine stationed on Okinawa, took a trip to Guam and took these photo for us:



Of course, you can read about all the post offices of Hawai'i and other Pacific Islands in the PMCC Directory! I 'adopted', and was responsible for editing, the Hawai'i list this time around.