Post Office at the End of the World

Get your passport stamped at the southernmost post office in the world!

This 4-5 hour tour will take you deep into Tierra del Fuego National Park where you will find the lonely wooden structure at the end of an old pier. Head inside to find maps and information about the history of the post office.

While you're at it, mail a letter to someone special.

It's just a letter. You think as you bend your numb fingers around one edge of the postcard.

You've been thinking about her all morning. How long has it been since you last spoke? She wrote you emails, at first. Long rambling letters about her day and how much she misses you.

You would tell her that there wasn't anywhere to get internet this far south but we both know that's a lie. You would scan each letter but the person she was talking about seemed less and less like you. You would draft a reply to each email but rarely sent it. You're not trying to push her away even though that's exactly what you're doing. Coming here has only made the emotional distance geographical as well.

It's cold at the Southernmost Post Office in the World. even though it's summer on this half of the equator. You begin to compare yourself to Shackelton or Magellan. Adventure is your lover. Still, you're cold. It's almost Christmas back home but she's not cold. You heard from a mutual friend that she's started spending a lot of time with Steve. He's nice. Stable. "Does he make you laugh?" You'll ask her one day. "He doesn't make me cry" she replies. Or maybe you're thinking of Julia Roberts in Ocean's 11.

You continue to absently play with the postcard in your hand. One of the edges has bent in your pocket during the bus ride. Maybe it will get lost on its journey back to Michigan. Stuck in the machine. That would be fine. Either way, you would be absolved of the sin of silence by putting this letter in the Southernmost Post Office in the World

It took you so long to write what's in your hand. A postcard is impossibly small when trying to scribble out the depths of the soul. At the same time, the blank square on the back end of a picture of an Antarctic sunrise was intimidating and it was difficult to scratch out the first few lines. Maybe you didn't have anything to say at all. Maybe the urge to write this letter comes from guilt or simply habit. Does she know? She always had the answers. It's so easy to ask someone "Do you love me?" but is it fair to ask "Do I love you?"

You glance around the beach to realize you are alone. Truly alone. All the other guests have shuffled back to the bus. They're waiting for you and so you deposit your epitaph into the red bin with Mail written in Spanish across the top.

It will take six weeks for the letter to travel from Ushuaia to Michigan. By then, you will have already broken up. She'll move in with Steve soon after that and when you hear that they're engaged a few months later you're not surprised.

$395

Tours run Tuesdays and Thursdays

Meet in the lobby at 10:00 am or ask the concierge to reserve your spot at the front desk.