3234 East 23rd Street

This clever box seems to be mounted on two round metal posts that come out from the bottom. But, if you look more closely, the posts are actually attached to the top of the prickly pear cactus…

Just underneath the mailbox

And, the amazingly lifelike cactus is actually made of metal (or maybe wood?). Look closely at the “pads” above and you'll see that they have square sides and edges.

Closeup of quail near bottom of
prickly pear “post”

I spotted this masterpiece (“masterpost?” sorry.) on July 20, 2018.

Mexican mailbox heaven: Palacio Postal

The last few months of 2018 were challenging for me. I haven't been able to take mailbox photos or post them. But things should be back to normal soon! I've pre-posted mailboxes for the rest of January, and I'm hoping that I'll be back to posting photos weekly.

After my life settled down last month, I spent two weeks in Mexico City — which, by the way, the city government now calls CDMX (it's short for CiuDad de MéXico). Though I'd been there before (the photos below are from February, 2016), I stopped in again during a tour of the city center — where our guide told us the building was constructed in the early 20th Century by president Portfio Diaz. He, she said, built grand things to celebrate his power. I believe she also said that it was the first public building in Mexico City with electricity. (With all of its ornate lights and the elevators, it must have needed a lot of power!)

View from outside

Here are a few postal-type photos of things I spotted in 2016 — when I had time to look closely. (By the way, until now I've been putting captions before photos with a colon at the end of the caption. From now on, I'm going to start putting the captions underneath the photos — assuming I remember to, that is. :)

(The wording says, literally: 1580 1st major mail;
I think it means something like 1580: first national mail)

Behind the scenes, through the bars:
a woman sorting mail

A place for third-class machine-franked mail
(Franking is mail that's sent for free)

By the way, today's entry on the Tucson Murals Project blog is of a beautiful building address in the Roma Norte neighborhood of CDMX.

If you click on the Location below, you'll see Palacio Postal on a map. Happy 2019!

4234 E Kilmer Street

This mailbox has more color than any other I've seen in a long while!

David Aber emailed them on June 26th.

P.S. I'm sorry for the month-long break in mailbox posts. It was a perfect storm of problems. I'm aiming to get back to one post every two weeks for the next month or so, then go back to weekly.

8212 East Victoria Drive

In our July 11 entry, you got a look at a butterfly-covered box in front of 8201 E. Victoria. Across the street on the same day, May 10th, David Aber caught a photo of this:

As always, thanks, David.

5718 East 30th Street

What makes this mailbox unique is that the “post” isn't plain: It looks like two legs — with shorts and socks, no less. The man's two arms hold a mailbox and a tube labeled “FedEx.”

The home is for sale — or it was near May 10th, which is when David Aber mailed me the photo. Who cares about the house… this amazing piece of art should close the deal! :)

8201 East Victoria Drive

David Aber calls this “Butterfly Box” — for obvious reasons:

He flew by (and stopped) (apologies, Dave :) on May 10th.

4834 East Glenn Street

Wow! This mailbox has a bit of everything!

David Aber sent the photos on May 7th.

2510 East Richards Place

David Aber saw this beauty out of the corner of his eye as he was traveling along Tucson Blvd. between Ft. Lowell & Prince. (It's on the east side of Tucson Blvd.)

The camera's EXIF data says the photo was taken March 28th. (Blogger removes EXIF data.)

Thanks, David!

2821 North Orlando Avenue

I found this gem, after a long hunt, on May 17th. (I'd seen it on the True Tucson blog.)

3226 East 24th Street

As I was driving to a friend's home on April 26th, I spotted a woman painting a mailbox. I stopped immediately, of course. :) She was a homeowner brightening her (boring) black box with scenes of mermaids and fish:

She hadn't finished. Here are two photos at that point:

I rolled by again on May 13th to find (what I think is) the finished mailbox: