The Galapagos Has a 200-Year-Old Post Office Run by Travelers

On a beach in the Galapagos Islands, there is a post office with no guarantee that your mail will ever arrive – and that’s part of the charm!

In the late 1700s, British whalers passing through the Galapagos spent years at sea with no way to send word home, so they devised a workaround on the beach at Floreana.

They set up a wooden barrel on a pole – kind of like a mailbox you’d see today – and stuffed their letters inside before sailing on. The next crew to land would open the barrel, look through the mail, and take any letters addressed to places they were headed. Those sailors would hand-deliver the letters once they reached the right port, and they left their own letters behind for the crew that came after them.

The Same System, Two Centuries Later

The informal mail system still operates today as it did back then, except that the letter writers are now tourists rather than whalers.

Travel to Floreana, and you’ll see a barrel packed with postcards tucked into ziplock bags to survive the salt air. You can search through the barrel and pull out any postcards addressed to somewhere near your home (or someplace you’re traveling to), and carry them back with you to hand-deliver once you return. You can drop a postcard of your own into the barrel and hope a future traveler will do the same for you.

Does the Mail Get Delivered?

A postcard might reach its recipient quickly, or in a few months…sometimes it can take years! And some postcards never arrive at all, because the operation depends on strangers choosing to follow through long after they leave the island.

If you make it to the Galapagos, Post Office Bay gives you a chance to become one small link in a chain that stretches back more than 200 years. You carry a stranger’s card home, and one day a stranger carries yours – sometimes the world is a good place.

About the Author

As the editor in chief of Frayed Passport, my goal is to help you build a lifestyle that lets you travel the world whenever you want and however long you want, and not worry about where your next paycheck will come from. I've been to 20+ countries and five continents, lived for years as a full-time digital nomad, and have worked completely remotely since 2015. If you would like to share your story with our community, or partner with Frayed Passport, get in touch with me using the form on our About page.

Featured image “Post office bay (Floreana Island)” by claumoho is licensed under CC BY 2.0