Pirate post office

Another place we went to on the cruise was  Post Office Bay.  It's one of those postcard perfect beaches, but the interesting thing about it is just off the beach is an old barrel which is a relic from back in the days when the Galapagos islands were used as a port for whalers and other sea faring folk, as well as a refuge for pirates.

The barrel was used as a post box.  People would leave messages in the barrel and other people coming through would go through the box and take anything that they could deliver.  Now the tradition lives on through numerous travellers who come through the Galapagos.  We wrote our postcards and put them in the barrel.  Then looked through the 100's of other letters and postcards for ones that were close to home.  Written on the cards were lots of promises of homemade treats or meal for a message hand delivered. 

I could only find three cards that were from Australians, and only one of these was in Victoria.  I think Beechworth is up north somewhere; but I figure it can't be anymore than a weekend roadtrip and I love the thought of turning up on someones doorstep, in this case Bev & Mick from Beechworth, and delivering a postcard written in the Galapagos six months ago.  Someone suggested they could take a postcard from their country and post it when they get home; but that just didn't seem in the spirit of things to me.

Putting my postcards in the barrel.