Sending Postcards in Batanes

In a place landlocked by waters, everything moves slow. Mobile signals are intermittent, bikes are to be seen more frequently than cars, and Internet cafes could be found nowhere.

Sending e-mails, or even the mere updating of a Facebook status, are almost next to impossible but the people here don’t mind. If you’re a traveler staying for a while, you wouldn’t mind too as the place boasts with sceneries that will take your breath away. Here, connection to the outside world, or the lack thereof, is not bothersome.

However, if you are a fan of waiting, or are not bothered by it, then perhaps communicating the old way would be your cup of tea — here comes the snail mails.

Sending a postcard from Batanes might take weeks before it becomes available at your recipient’s doorstep. Every parcel or letter that goes through the halls of the Batanes Post Office would still have to go to Tuguegarao and then to Manila. Only then will it, at long last, be bounced directly to its respective location.

It may take a while, but your postcard sure did travel a lot. That somehow adds to the charm of snail mails, isn’t it? There’s this stillness in waiting.