Unique and Oddly Fascinating Post Office Graces the Globe
In the heart of the Galápagos Islands, a place more famous for its sea lions and penguins, lies a unique postal service that harks back to the 18th century. Floreana Island, one of the remote islands off Ecuador's coast, was once a pit stop for whalers.
These sailors, homesick and far from home, developed an innovative system for sending letters to their families. The first mention of the post office on Floreana Island can be traced back to Captain David Porter's Journal of a Cruise (1813), according to John Woram's timeline. Porter, in his book, recalls finding a box nailed to a pot with a black sign that read "Hathaway's Postoffice."
The post office barrel, a simple wooden barrel, was likely set up by whalers in the 1890s to allow mail to be exchanged and carried home by passing ships. Over the years, this barrel has been replaced by visiting vessels from around the world. Today, tourists frequently stop at the island to explore ancient lava caves and to pick up and drop off postcards at the post office site in Post Office Bay.
Visitors can mail or hand-deliver letters to recipients after sifting through the mail and collecting letters going to a home near their final destination. The letters are then carried home by other tourists, a tradition that continues into the 21st century. The barrel, now covered in notes and keepsakes from travelers, stands as a testament to this unconventional postal system.
The consumption of giant sea tortoises during this period contributed to Charles Darwin finding none left on Floreana Island when he arrived in 1835. The 18th-century whalers, who used the post office, likely wouldn't object to any method that saw their letters delivered.
Tour guides often say that slapping a stamp on a letter and dropping it in a mailbox is cheating compared to the tradition of the Galápagos postal service. Over the years, driftwood bearing painted names and dates has been piled around the site to commemorate long-ago letter deliveries. Thousands of letters pass through Post Office Bay in the present day, a far cry from the humble beginnings of the first barrel.
This unique stampless system for sending mail continues to attract visitors and postcards from around the world, ensuring that the tradition lives on in the heart of the Galápagos Islands.
