Stamped With a Sailfish

Stuff we Like

Oct 27

Do people even send handwritten letters anymore?

Perhaps I’m showing my age, but I still value both sending and receiving personalized letters. And they mean even more if there’s some additional touch. For example, on my first trip to Alaska in 1995, my friends and I were certain to send notes postmarked in the town of North Pole. A subject-specific stamp does the job, too.

I wish I had someone to send a letter from Guatemala. Casa Vieja Lodge is kind enough to include stationery and postcards in their in-room welcome packages. What would make it even sweeter is to stamp it with a piece of postage emblematic of the experience – pez vela.

I could not find a Guatemalan stamp with a picture of the fish that we’re there to target, but apparently lots of other countries have decided that bringing the mail should have a sailfish licked in place. Here are the ones that I found:

Antigua fish postage stamps — **Antigua**

Ascension Island postage stamp sailfish — **Ascension Island**

British Honduras sailfish postage stamp — **British Honduras**

(now Belize)

Central African Republic postage stamp with sailfish and Ernest Hemingway — **Central African Republic**

(featuring a guest appearance from Papa Hemingway)

Cuba postage stamp peces pelagicos — **Cuba**

Republique Dahomey Sailfish Stamp — **Dahomey**

(within present-day Benin)

Dominica postage stamp makaira albida billfish — **Dominica**

Grenada Big Game Fishing stamp — **Grenada**

Colorful Korean fishing stamp — **Korea**

Repoblika Demokratika Malagasy postage stamp sailfish — **Madagascar**

Mauritius Postage stamp with a sailfish stamped — **Mauritius**

Monserrat Atlantic Sailfish stamp — **Montserrat**

Republic of Palau Pacific Sailfish stamp 44cents — **Palau**

Panama stamp Pez Vela Istiophorous Americanus — **Panama**

Senegal La Mer Telle Que Nous L'Aimons — **Senegal**

Seychelles stamp 2 cents sail fish — **Seychelles**

Solomon Islands Indo-Pacific sailfish stamp — **Solomon Islands**

stamp from Cote Francaise Des Somalis — **French Somaliland**

(I believe this is now Djbouti)

St. Vincent Independence 1979 stamp with a sailfish — **St. Vincent**

Tanzania Mafia Island sailfish stamp — **Tanzania**

Of those, I can’t decide which one surprised me more: Korea or Yemen. Panama and the BVIs are the only two I’ve fished. Apparently I have a lot more traveling to do and quite a few more letters to send before I sail away forever.

If you’d like to join us in Guatemala, the most prolific sailfish fishery in the world, just drop us a line for more information. Email is fine, but a letter will suffice as well.

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