Post Office Bay, Floreana
Short answer
Post Office Bay is a beach on Floreana with a wooden barrel on a post that has served as an informal mail drop since the eighteenth century. You leave a postcard, sort through the ones already there, take any addressed near where you live, and deliver them yourself — by hand, not by post.
On this page — 7 sections
It has run for over two centuries with no stamps, no staff and no money, purely because strangers keep honouring it. Whalers started it to get letters home; the system has never been improved and has never stopped.
Post Office Bay at a glance
| Island | Floreana |
|---|---|
| Running since | The late eighteenth century, started by whalers |
| Landing | Wet landing on the beach |
| Guide | Park-licensed naturalist required |
| Cost | None. There are no stamps and no fee |
| The rule | You deliver by hand. Posting it misses the point |
- 1
Post Office Bay is a beach on Floreana with a wooden barrel on a post that has served as an informal mail drop since the eighteenth century. You leave a postcard, sort through the ones already there, take any addressed near where you live, and deliver them yourself — by hand, not by post.
How you get there
- Day trip from Santa Cruz
- A speedboat crossing of roughly two hours each way, which is the honest cost of this visit. Long day for a short beach.
- On a cruise
- A standard stop on southern itineraries, usually combined with another Floreana site the same day.
It sits on Floreana, so how you reach the island decides how you reach this.
What you actually see
The barrel
A cask on a post, buried under decades of driftwood, licence plates, shoes and handwritten signs left by visitors. It is scruffy and that is exactly right.
Sorting the post
The group empties it and reads addresses aloud. Someone always finds one from their own town, and that is the moment the site works.
What is behind the beach
The remains of a fish-canning operation and a lava tube you can climb into with a torch. Most groups skip both.
What goes wrong
We run these trips, so we know what people complain about afterwards. Better to read it here than find out on the day.
- People post the cards
- The whole thing depends on hand delivery. Dropping them in a postbox with a stamp breaks the only rule the system has.
- Nothing addressed near you
- Common, and it disappoints people who expected a card for their own street. Take one for anywhere you can genuinely reach, or leave it.
- The crossing is the visit
- From Santa Cruz it is four hours of boat for a beach and a barrel. It is worth it for the story, not for the scenery — and we would rather say so before you book.
Who this is not for
Saying this costs us bookings and saves the trip. If any of these is you, tell us and we will build the day differently.
- Anyone prone to seasickness doing it as a day trip. Two hours each way, exposed.
- Visitors who want wildlife — this site is history, not animals.
- People who expect a monument. It is a barrel covered in junk.
What lives here
- Galápagos sea lion — On the beach at the landing.
- Green sea turtle — Nesting on this beach in the warm season.
- Galápagos flycatcher — In the scrub behind the barrel, and unafraid.
Nearby
Devil’s Crown
Floreana
What it is →Punta Cormorant
Floreana
What it is →Asilo de la Paz
Floreana
What it is →Champion Islet
Floreana
What it is →Darwin Bay
Genovesa
What it is →Cerro Brujo
San Cristóbal
What it is →Every visitor site we have written up → · Floreana, the whole island →
Questions people also ask
Does the Post Office Bay barrel really work?
Yes, and it has since the eighteenth century. Visitors take cards addressed near their homes and deliver them by hand. There are no stamps and nobody runs it.
Should you post the card you take?
No. Hand delivery is the entire tradition. Putting it in a postbox works mechanically and destroys the point.
How long does a card take to arrive?
Anything from weeks to years, depending entirely on when someone from that area happens to visit. Some never arrive.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of these. If one of them changes and we have not caught up, tell us and we will fix it the same day.
Planning this trip yourself?
Send us the dates and what you actually want to see. A planner in Cuenca reads it and replies within one business day — not a template, and not a bot.
Plan your trip