Day 5: Olivine Beach
Post Office Bay is interesting in its historical sense. Sailors would leave mail at this location in a barrel and when another ship came by, they would look through the letters and if one was addressed for a place they were going to, they would take it and deliver it.
Keeping with tradition, a modern 'barel' is placed on the island and people leave behind post cards. Each tour group goes to the box and sorts through them until they come across one that is near where they live. If one wishes, they may take it home with them and hand deliver it to the recipient. It is a nice way to meet some of your neighbors as well. We were delphian to find that one was addressed to someone a few streets down in our town, but soon let down when it was marked "Do not take. Leave for Em to pick up". A second one with similar warnings on it for a town near us was left by a second party pooper.
Not sure if that is why neither of us fancied the island relative to the others or if it was because we did not see any animals on this stop. We did climb stairs into a lava tube but it was not as exciting as we thought it might be. Others liked it well enough, though. The down day could have also be due to a possible allergic reaction to shrimp the night before and the system had not recovered.
Speaking of shrimp, Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp. Did you know that? Pretty neat. In the evening we returned to the island at a different location (Punta Cormorant) to see Flamingos. My favorite part was the beach, though, with the olivine stones in the dark brown sand. It shone like jewels in the sunset.