Mail culture

Sending something by mail in Peru is an exercise in perseverance.

To give you an idea: our neighbourhood (Barranco) which is sizable enough to elect its own mayor, doesn’t have a post office. At all.

Not only is it hard to get to a post office to get a hold of stamps, there are no mailboxes on the streets. Not a single one, even here in the capital city. We thought we were being clever when we dropped by the post office outside of office hours to mail a post card that already had stamps on it. We figured we could just drop the mail into the mail slot.

This is what we found:

Serpost – Peru’s national mail

Out of luck. The mail slot we thought we would use is behind bars and glass… Tantalizingly in view, but unreachable. The only option is to come back during office hours…

Mail slot behind bars and glass

(If you look closely, you might be able to see something reflected in the glass.)