Barbados

In honour of this blog's sixth birthday, a blast from the past! This card from the archives was sent to me by my Mum when my postcard collection was really in its infancy, just a handful of cards tacked up to my bedroom wall. My Mum, well-travelled lady that she is, has contributed considerably to my collection, and I can never thank her enough for taking time out of her holidays to track down stamps, cards and errant post offices to indulge my postcard folly. Merci bien, maman!

Card shows Harrismith Beach on the southeast coast of Barbados.

Stamp on the left commemorates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Barbados Museum in 1933. Stamp on the right from the 1989 definitive set of 16 features Centrosema virginianum, or wild pea, a common vine throughout most of the Americas.

British Indian Ocean Territory

Postcard of Diego Garcia, the largest island in the British Indian Ocean Territory. While the island had previously been the home of a small number of copra plantation workers and their families, they were all forcibly removed between 1968 and 1973 and deported to Mauritius and the Seychelles so that the British government could build a joint military base with the United Stated. 

In 2019, this action and continued British administration of the archipelago were deemed illegal by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a ruling the United Nations General Assembly supported. The British government, however, dismissed the ruling as not legally binding. 

Stamp from the 2004 definitive series shows a bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica), a large migratory wadering bird that lives in the Arctic coasts and tundra from Scandinavia to Alaska, and overwinters on coasts in temperate and tropical regions of Australia and New Zealand. The migration of the subspecies Limosa lapponica baueri across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand is the longest known non-stop flight of any bird, and also the longest journey without pausing to feed by any animal. The round-trip migration for this subspecies is over 29,000 km.

Venezuela

Rather older postcard from my archives sent from a time when Venezuela actively promoted itself as a beach holiday destination. With the ongoing difficult political situation in the country, tourism has dropped off precipitously. There used to be direct flights from all over Canada to Margarita Island, pictured here, which have now long since stopped. Too bad, I'm told the country is a great travel destination.

Muchas gracias to my Mum for sending this to me on her holiday many moons ago.

Stamp from a 1996 set of two commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Venezuelan writer Mario Briceño-Iragorry. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948.

French Polynesia

Postcard from the idyllic island of Bora Bora in French Polynesia. I've been mesmerised by the allure of French Polynesia for a long time, since elementary school, in fact, when we were given a project about French-speaking countries and I was assigned this faraway paradise of turquoise lagoons and swaying palm trees. I've been hooked ever since! A the card from French Polynesia, however, eluded me for a very long time. It's a very long way from anything, and not many people make it there. I was over the moon when Couchsurfing friends Sacha and Denis requested to stay with me. It was great to talk to them about my ongoing fascination with their homeland, and to politely beg them to send a card for my collection on their return. They very kindly obliged, and a big merci and māuruuru roa to them for this new country to my collection.

Stamp from a yearly series for Chinese New Year, featured here 2013 Year of the Water Snake. Snake is most closely associated with education and research, making 2013 a very special year for scientists and scholars.

Turks and Caicos Islands

Postcard of a beach on Providenciales, the most populated island in the British territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands, though not the capital, which is diminutive Cockburn Town with just 8,000 residents. The beaches in the Turks and Caicos are regularly voted among the best in the world, and are a popular winter holiday destination for North Americans. Turks and Caicos are also notable in that there has been, over the years, discussions of the territory becoming a part of Canada. When Britain began decolonising the Caribbean, the locals were not in favour of joining an independent Bahamas, which had been Britain's original intention. The islands not feeling they could become independent themselves, idea was therefore floated of giving them to Canada. The Canadian government was not interested in becoming a new colonial power, but the idea still pops up in the media from time to time. – No doubt the notion of owning a slice of palm tree paradise appeals to many in the Great White North!

The island group is on Britain's Tentative List for World Heritage. Many thanks to friend Scott who fled the Canadian cold for the turquoise shores of T&C!

Stamp shows Astraea brevispina, a species of sea snail found in the Caribbean, from a 2007 set of 15 featuring shells and sea snails. 

Burundi

Postcard showing a beach on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. It is estimated to be the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, and the second deepest, in both cases, after only Lake Baikal in Siberia. The water flows into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean, although it's thought that as recently as the region's exploration by Europeans in the 1850s, the lake did not have an outflow to the ocean at all, and may have, in the distant past, flown into the Nile instead.

Lake Tanganyika is on Burundi's Tentative List of World Heritage, although the lake also borders Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia.

Many thanks to David, of Postcards A World Travelogue, for sending the card during his East African adventures.

Stamp is from a set of 4 issued in 2012 featuring royal drummers and dancers.

Belize

Postcard from the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye, located in the northeast of the country. The island is largely undeveloped, the main attraction being the Belize Barrier Reef and its beaches. The Belize Barrier Reef is the second largest in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

Many thanks to friend Rob who was visiting friends in Belize.

Both stamps are from the 2005 definitive series of twelve stamps featuring ecological and heritage sites around the country. Stamp on the left shows the House of Culture Museum, housed in the former British governor-general's residence built in 1812. On the right is Nohoch Che'en Archaeological Reserve, a Mayan site in a system of underground rivers and caves.

Canada – Nova Scotia

Postcard from the East Coast fishing town of Lunenburg. The town is the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America and, as such, is a World Heritage site, Old Town Lunenburg. Established in 1753, it has retained its original layout and overall appearance, with preserved wooden architecture dating, in some cases, from the eighteenth century. The town is also known for its flat-bottomed wooden boats, seen here in the foreground.

 Previously featured definitive stamp series featuring baby animal.

A not often seen Canadian air mail label.

Kiribati

Postcard of Christmas Island (one of many with that name), also known as Kiritimati in local Gilbertese language. Measuring 388 square kilometres, Christmas Island has the greatest land area of any coral atoll in the world and makes up over 70% of the total land area of Kiribati. The island was uninhabited at the time of European discovery, although it may have served as a waystation during long sea voyages by Oceanic people in the past. 

Interestingly, when Spain sold its North Pacific possessions to Germany in 1899 following its defeat in the Spanish–American War, Christmas Island was not included in the description of the transferred territory. As a result, Spain in theory retained its sovereignty over the island. When the oversight was discovered in the 1940s, the Spanish Government declared that it reserved special rights to the island, although it has never made any attempt to exercise their rights to this odd fluke of history.

Thank you, or ko rab'a as they say in Kiribati, to David of "Postcards A world Travelogue" for all these fantastic cards.

Two stamps from the 2008 definitive series of twelve featuring birds. On the left, the band-rumped storm petrel, Oceanodroma castro, a common sea bird found across the tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. On the right, the Eurasian teal, Anas crecca, a common waterbird found across Europe, North Africa, and Asia, although not in Kiribati! Loving the cancellation stamp.

Vanuatu

Super woohooo! Welcoming new country Vanuatu into the collection, stamp-issuing entity No. 159! Card shows sites on the island of Espiritu Santo, the largest island in Vanuatu. The islands was named by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, who arrived in 1605, claiming the archipelago for Spain and naming it Espiritu Santo, Spanish for "Holy Spirit". The Spanish never maid much of their claim to the region and by the 1880s France and the United Kingdom both claimed parts of the country. In 1906 they agreed on a unique form of government for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through a British–French condominium, until independence was achieved in 1980.

Deep, heartfelt thanks and merci to friend of friend Juliette for helping me strike one more country off my list! :-D

Stamp from a 2011 set of four featuring beaches in Vanuatu, seen here the beach on Eratrap Island, a small island off the coast of Vanuatu's main island, Efate. To really get you in the mood, the stamp actually features a special coating mimicking the feel of real sand on the beach!

Fiji II

Bula, the Fijian word for "hello". A multiview card from that country, landing in my mailbox just a few days after my first card from Fiji. Almost like when I added Uzbekistan to my collection with three cards from three different people that all arrived on the same day; the more the merrier, I say! My many thanks and vinaka to David from "Postcards: A World Travelogue" for taking some time out of the palm trees to send this to me.

Stamp on the left is from 2003 (I think) and features tagimoucia, Medinilla waterhousei, a flowering vine endemic to Fiji and the country's national flower. Stamp on the right from a 2012 set of four on renewable energy in Fiji, commemorating the United Nations 2012 International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. It features biomass, plant material which generates energy directly by being burnt or once it is transformed into biofuel.

Réunion

Multiview postcard from Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Card shows a popular beach, Le Boucan, a tree fern, a white-tailed tropicbird, and a shot of an eruption of the Piton de la Fournaise volcano, one of the world's most active. Piton de la Fournaise is located in the "Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island" World Heritage site which covers almost the entire central part of the island.

Many thanks and a merci to Shamia for helping me add a card from Réunion to my collection.

Réunion is an integral part of France in the same vein as Hawaiʻi and Alaska are a part of the United States of America. As such, it uses standard French stamps. Stamp on the left commemorates the Apprentis d'Auteuil, a Catholic charity founded by a French priest in 1866, originally to help orphans, but now working with at-risk young people. Stamp on the right depicts the Jacques Chaban-Delmas Drawbridge in Bordeaux, which opened this year and is one of the largest such bridges in Europe.

Canada – Northwest Territories II

Another card from my Mum's travels in the Canadian Arctic, this time from the small community of Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Tuktoyaktuk is certainly one of the more iconic place names in Canada, and I learned  it was the first community in northern Canada to revert to its traditional Native name, having been known as "Fort Brabant" prior to 1950. 

Mum dipped her toe in the Arctic Ocean and reports that it wasn't really as cold as one would expect, probably because of record-breaking summer temperatures. My many thanks to her for sending me this card from the most northerly place in my collection, 69° 27′.

Previously featured baby black bear stamp featuring a Tuktoyaktuk postmark!

Canada – Ontario V

Postcard of Sandbanks Provincial Park, near my hometown of Belleville, Ontario. It is the world's largest freshwater sand dune system. There are dunes much higher than the ones pictured here that are perfect for "sandbogganing" down straight into the lake. Lots of fun on a summer's day.

Previously featured stamp of a moose from a self-adhesive definitive set on baby animals.

Djibouti II

A second postcard from Djibouti, with my thanks again to Salah. Shukran! This card shows Maskali Island, a popular destination for scuba divers in the Gulf of Tadjoura near the entrance to the Red Sea.

Same stamp previously featured, issued in 2005 in honour of the Djibouti National Women's League.

Djibouti

Another new country; I'm really on quite an astounding role at the moment! Five new countries in the space of a month! Certainly a record for me.

This card from the small East African country of Djibouti says on the reverse that it's of Moucha Island, a small offshore island popular with scuba divers. But I'm quite certain that must a printing error of some kind. Google Earth confirms that this is a picture of the eponymous capital city, Djibouti, founded in 1888 by the French as the capital of French Somaliland.

Shukran and many thanks to Salah for help knock this country off my list.

Stamp commemorating the Djibouti National Women's League that works for women's empowerment, literacy and health care.

United Arab Emirates

Long skinny postcard showing Dubai's famous Burj Al Arab Hotel. The hotel is renowned for being highly luxurious and is sometimes billed as the world's only "seven star" hotel. The Royal Suite, billed at US$18,776 per night, is one of the most expensive hotel rooms in the world.

Many thanks to Salah for swapping cards. You can check out Salah's postcard blog, ASDF Postcrossing.

Joint stamp set commemorating Arab Postal Day 2008, which highlights cooperation and communication among Arab States in the field of postal services.

Guam

Card from the American territory of Guam in the North-West Pacific. The island has become a popular winter holiday spot for Japanese, Koreans and Chinese looking for a spot of beach and sun. Card shows Tanguisson Beach and Two Lovers Point in the background. There are various permutations of the legend of Two Lovers Point, but in essence two star-crossed lovers, persecuted in life, tie their hair together and jump off the high cliff face to stay together in eternity.

Guam, and all other US territories, use the United States Postal Service rather than issuing its own stamps. Stamp shows Acadia National Park, the oldest national park in the United States east of the Mississippi, created in 1919. I thought it rather amusing that the special Canada/Mexico rate still applies to mail sent from Guam, even though they are several thousands of kilometres away, whereas mail sent to nearby Japan uses the standard international rate.

French Southern and Antarctic Lands – Kerguelen II

Postcard of an elephant seal pup, Mirounga leonina, lounging on beach of the French sub-Antarctic island Kerguelen. Southern elephant seals are the largest seal species and, in fact, the largest carnivores living today, with males typically weighing 2,200–4,000 kilograms and measuring 4.2–5.8 meters long! They can dive for 20 minutes at a time and have been recorded at depths exceeding 2,000 meters.

Stamp showing the Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddellii, a relatively large and abundant seal noted for having the most southerly distribution of any mammal, with a habitat that extends as far south as McMurdo Sound at 77° S.

United States of America – Illinois

Postcard showing a beach on the shores of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline in the background. Chicago is the third-largest city in the United States, although it is not the capital of Illinois, which is the small city of Springfield to the southwest. The city was founded in 1833 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Due to its location on the banks of the Chicago River, at one of the few natural harbours on southern Lake Michigan, and with the opening up of agricultural lands in the Midwest, Chicago was the fastest growing city in the world for much of the nineteenth century.

Thanks to Paul who was in Chicago for a short holiday.

Stamp commemorating José Ferrer, a Puerto Rican actor who was the first Hispanic person to win an Academy Award (in 1950, for Best Actor in Cyrano de Bergerac).