The GCW Tour, Buenos Aires & Antarctica: The Penguin Post Office

I don't usually do postcards when I travel, but how can you resist sending postcards with an Antarctic postmark? I couldn't.

The "Penguin Post Office" is the unofficial name of the Port Lockroy station. It was started by the British back in the 1940s, in secret, as part of the war effort, but it's utility for the war was very short lived. It then became a science station focused mostly on high atmosphere weather research, but that didn't last long either. At this point it's a museum, gift shop and post office feeding off the summer tourists who stop by for the chance to send a psotcard from Antarctica.

They're also doing research there on the effect of interaction wtih humans on penguins. Go figure.

The primary purpose of Fort Lockroy is chartible, though. The monies raised through the gift shop and donations are used to maintain Great Britian's historical outposts on Antarctica. If I recall correctly, there are eight or nine buildings they keep up.

Of course, the postcards I sent have to get to Seattle by way of Great Britian, and are mostly carried by cruise ship, so I'm told it takes in the neighborhood of six weeks to three months to receive them. So don't feel bad if it doesn't show up in your mailbox tomorrow.

For that matter, don't feel bad if it doesn't show up at all. It didn't really occur to me that sending postcards from Antarctica would be possible, so I didn't bring an address book. I'm working from memory here, which means there aren't many postcards going out. And in a few cases I was guessing at the zip codes so they may not make it at all. Sorry.

But in place of a psot card, here's more pictures -- including a shot of the dirtiest penguin I saw in my entire time in Antarctica, and a couple of shots of the pin-ups that the original residents of Port Lockroy painted on the walls (and which were subsequently painted over and only discovered when the restoration crew started scraping the walls in preparation for repainting and found them). 

The BBC did a documentary on the post office which they played on the boat. It was worth watching. You can find information about it a the end of this link.