Thewesternprovinceblog

A 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 history nerd travelling The New World. ΒΏWhat could possibly go wrong? Join me on my way to The fabled lands of Ar Wladfa πŸ‡¦πŸ‡·

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A 🏴󠁧󠁒󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 history nerd travelling The New World. ΒΏWhat could possibly go wrong? Join me on my way to The fabled lands of Ar Wladfa πŸ‡¦πŸ‡· in πŸ‡¨πŸ‡΄

  • Dia 26 – Cholula

    Day 26 – Cholula 

    Hello everyone. Yesterday I went to Cholula, the home of the biggest pyramid in the world although unlike TeotihuacΓ‘n this one is largely buried and the Spanish built a church on top of it. 

    To get to the top you have to climb up lots of stairs but when you get up there there are some epic views of Puebla and other cities nearby and the church inside is something else. 

    Going back down there are several excavated structures in the same style as those in TeotihuacΓ‘n and a bit of places where you can read more on the site and it’s history. Cholulas is quite bloody for two reasons.

    The first is they were partial to the human sacrifice too but they had a thing for sacrificing children. Yes children! to the water god to bring the rains.

    The second major thing is this is the site of the most bloody massacre of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. In 1519 Hernan Cortez’ conquistadors and their Tlaxcalan allies massacred the tribe that lived here, sacked the great temple and set the place on fire on the way out during their march to Tenochtitlan.

    Why did they do this it’s not known but if I was to take a guess they probably walked in on a kid being sacrificed and decided they didn’t want to be dragged off to the water god in the dead of night and therefore they were not having that!!

    The rest of the day after that was relatively uneventful. Might make a video on Cholula as there’s more to it than this narrative can fit.

  • Dia 25 – 5 de Mayo

    Day 25 – Cinco de Mayo

    Hola todos. Time for another blog post. Today I decided to go check out forts Guadalupe and Loreto on the North side of town since I learned this was where the battle of 5 de Mayo took place.

    Up I went and decided to walk it, turned out it was a longer walk than it looked largely because I initially spent 20 mins heading the wrong way but corrected course and soon reached the base of the hill. Getting up there was quite the climb but not as much as it would have been back in the day.

    I get up top and luckily there’s a place to grab a brew and a light bite before heading up properly. In fort Guadelupe there is a museum where the church used to be. I paid the 3 bucks entrance fee and they gave me a little guided tour all in Spanish. The kid spoke very fast so he didn’t get everything perfectly but understood the gist of it.

    It was all about the French invasion of Mexico to install Maximilian Von Hapsburg as a puppet monarch to France with the backing of a Mexican conservative faction. The backstory is a bit too much to put here in this limited space.

    At that fort was where the French made their initial attack on Puebla in 1862. Numbers wise it was even with around 4000 Vs 4000 although the Mexicans were poorly armed Peasant militias while the French had the well equipped and veteran units of their African foreign legion. 

    While the Mexicans had the advantage of being atop a hill fort they were both outgunned and fearful. Every time they drove the French off they would regroup and come up again and they did get quite close to breaking the Mexicans until after a 3rd attempt while they were gearing up for round 4 a big rain storm came in wetting the French powder and making further ascents up the hill too hard causing them to withdraw after about 3.5 hours of fighting.

    From what I believe happened after the Mexicans managed to make a cavalry counterattack which while it didn’t rout the French, it killed enough of them to stop them coming back the next day.

    What’s the ‘So What’ of this rather small battle? Firstly the Mexican victory stopped the French from taking Puebla and quickly steamrolling their way to Mexico City from there, buying time for the republicans to regroup and resist. It is an important cultural event for Mexican identity to this day and is also celebrated to a certain extent in the states.

    What’s the ‘So What’ of this rather small battle? Firstly the Mexican victory stopped the French from taking Puebla and quickly steamrolling their way to Mexico City from there, buying time for the republicans to regroup and resist. It is an important cultural event for Mexican identity to this day and is also celebrated to a certain extent in the states.
    The French would come back a year later in force and take Puebla and then occupy it for the next 4 years until the monarchy is overthrown.


    After this I head back and manage to hide from another rainstorm and then head out once again for some food and drinks. I stayed in touch with my new American friend now having done his 2nd day of school. Meet new best friend Sam, the captain of the Titanic himself!! He’s been one of the most normal people met on this journey so far and is quite a chill geezer. Tomorrow he learns the subjunctive fuck!! Wish him best of luck there hehe.
    Been a bit of a longer one than planned here but now we’re back up to speed with events. Tomorrow I do Cholula.

  • Day 24 – A slow one in Puebla

    Today was a fairly slow one, I had planned to visit a fort on the other side of the city but it’s closed on Mondays so it was another look around the historic center.Β 

    I decided to go have a look in the Amparo Museum. It was pretty good and ended up spending longer there then thought. Its a bit Bizarro as you go in but then there’s lots of history including a giant timeline which makes me curious and want to see more of the world and more of those freaky statues but not as spooky as the ones back in Tenochtitlan.

    It has some lovely outdoor spaces too with some temp exhibitions, namely one on nature as well as a concept design on what future Mexico should look like. Some interesting engineering concepts I must say.

    After this wrapped up I had some lunch & a cheeky one before going back for a siesta. I headed out later and met up with my American pal from last night. He managed to pass his B1 placement test on his first day at school so good on him for that. Rest of the evening was uneventful and it was an early one.

  • Dia 23 – R&R and more strange encounters

    Day 23 – R&R + more strange encounters.

    Hello everyone. Skipped a few days since the last blog however all it has really been is admin time and looking around the inner town of Puebla. They have a nice weekend market here that everyone goes out to and in general it’s quite a chill town.

    It’s now Monday and I have decided to extend my stay here for another week until the 13th as I had been on the road For 3 weeks plus been a crazy 2 back home before I got going so batteries were drained and I needed to rest up before going further.

    Next few days go by rather uneventfully, I just chill then Sunday rolls round. Had been a quiet day so far then night comes. I do the usual thing and head out for a wander but then a big downpour comes and I end up in this place on the zΓ³calo square. Nice enough little bar and chat to a few people, first an older American geezer in a Spanish school here. Chatted swapped details might see each other later. 

    He then left and got to chatting with another local, this guy was interesting as after some talking he turned out he was off duty private security for a kid of some high profile politician who’s in one of the unis here and Sunday and Monday is rest day there. I don’t know if it’s true or not but I’ve met enough squaddies to think he was for real.

    Anyways this place closes up and we go to another place and we get drinking some more but now it’s getting quite late and while I’m not getting overly sketched out I kind of wanted to call it while we weren’t too far from the gaffe while he clearly wanted to keep going. 

    He ends up chatting to this kid and some other blokes and kind of ignores me. At this point I drink up and take the opportunity to go and quietly pay my half of the tab and get out and quickly head back to the gaffe. Bit of a weird one as didn’t feel overly uncomfortable but had that feeling things could have turned shady on a sixpence if I stayed or he wanted to go somewhere else again after – I Felt worse around that other guy in Salamanca to be fair. Did I handle this right you be the judge? Another one from Simon was you have to be open to trust people however its always a double edged sword – If you trust too much you can get into trouble and if you trust too little you miss out on lots of experiences and possibly could miss your next big break in life!! I’d like to think I’ve got the baseline reasonably okay all things considered. End of the day I’m here on my own and nobody is coming to bail me out if I mess up so yes I might be a little standoffish!!
    I don’t know what it is but I always seem to meet people on the crazier side of the spectrum? Do I just have this aura about me? No idea. Any spiritual types following who can chime in?

  • Dia 19 – The Road to Puebla

    Day 19 – The road to Puebla (Part 1)

    Hola Todos! Today we start our way south. From this point onwards we are truly in unknown territory and now anything can happen.

    Chatting to those Uber drivers doing the pyramids they said there was a big protest planned for tomorrow and that from mid morning a large part of the city’s roads will be shut down so the advice was not to take the bus from the central TAPO but to go to the airport and get on the bus from there. 

    Doing that I’m up and out of the gaffe for 0730 and get to the airport for around 0815. My original bus was for 1320 but I was able to change it for 1100 for no extra cost. Happy days. I had a 3 hour wait where all I really did was upload stuff into canva.

    Getting on buses here you have to go through quite a strict security system, putting bags and your stuff through the metal detectors. Bit of a faf but at least you know you won’t get shanked on a bus here!

    1100 bus comes on time and we are rolling. It’s a 2 hour ride to Puebla and there are some lovely views heading up into the mountains. In parts it looks very SE Asia it china like. I was impressed.

    Soon we drop into Puebla and after some delays and faf getting out of the station I am at my gaffe.

    I booked into a lovely little family run hostel which is more like a hotel with shared kitchen and bathroom space but they are nice and give me some good recommendations to look around.

    Puebla’s old town is way more walkable than CDMX though a flash rain storm comes in and we find ourselves looking for shelter. 

    I ended up meeting 2 new nice people. First was an English chap who I recognized from the bus ride. Ended up grabbing some scran and a beer with him. He was doing a similar thing to myself and headed for Oaxaca next same as me but don’t know if our paths will cross again as he is heading back up north. We swapped details and went our separate ways. Might see him later during my stay here.After grub with butty Boy I went back to the gaffe, picked up some supplies and went back and changed clothes as got soaked in the flash downpour.

    Then it was night time and I do the usual thing of going round having a beer in a few different places and seeing if the RNG rolls were interesting to anyone. I go to a few places and not much happens until I end up in this microbrewery type gaffe and sit at the bar next to this lady who was drinking alone. Remembering the coffee shop experience the other day I decide to say hi and have a practice of my Spanish.

    Meet new best friend Laura, this girl is pretty interesting, being a goth and really into the same kind of music I like. She is local but has been about Europe and the states a quite a lot so we end up talking about travel experiences and the challenges of learning a new lingo – she spent quite some time in France learning the Baguetteoix. Eu no parlais voux. Moron!! It was all good and ended up being a fun little evening. We swapped details and might hang out again in the next few days. She also has IG account and is a singer and vocal coach. This is her account if you want to check out her content.@lauzkruspe

    After this it was time to turn in. Tomorrow is another admin day but I need to slow down a bit. Will be looking to get some of the reels done and out while they were on slow time over these next few days.

  • Dia 18 – Pyramids at Last!!

    Day 18 – Pyramids at last!!

    So we finally got to TeotihuacΓ‘n to see the pyramids after being distracted by our drunken side quests over the weekend!

    I had made plans with Simon’s friend to go to the pyramids together but unfortunately he was a no show last night and so it was left for me to sort things. Per si’s suggestion plan B was to get an Uber up there so that’s what I did. It cost about 35 quid in total to go there and back this way but it was worth it as both drivers were cool guys and I had an hour of chatting all in Spanish both ways. 

    From this I learned there is another protest planned tomorrow so I will have to be getting out earlier than planned. Will give details tomorrow of this. It was a quick visit into TeotihuacΓ‘n town for some street food breakfast then over to the pyramids.

    This place is absolutely incredible. Talking to Simons friend and in the Anthropology museum it is believed this ancient city goes back to 1000BC or even earlier, which would mean it goes back to the time of the Bronze age collapse in the ancient eastern Mediterranean. Which is absolutely insane to think about. The civilization with the Toltecs, and we’re the first to settle in the Mexico basin or so I believe.

    I will be making a video on this along with some of the other places visited to give it the proper coverage it deserves. Will start getting them out next admin day which will be coming soon.

    Today is my last day in CDMX, hopefully all goes well getting down to Puebla. I’m looking forward to it and from what everyone has told me I have a feel I’ll be staying there longer than planned!

    Video and overview of TeotihuacΓ‘n:

    TeotihuacΓ‘n – The City of the Gods.

    About an hour north of Mexico city can be found the remains of an ancient metropolis that is said in Mesomerican folklore to be where the gods were created. This is TeotihuacΓ‘n – the place where the gods were created.

    This city once housed around 200,000 people at its zenith at around 100 AD but it’s origins go way back further to 200 BC and possibly even as far back as 1000 BC. 

    By around 750 AD the city was almost totally abandoned and the reasons for its decline are unclear. By the time the Mexica – the people who would later become the Aztecs moved into the region around 1250 AD this place had been abandoned for centuries. It is from them it gets its name as the city of the gods with local legend implying some kind of divine punishment was met out for decadence on its founders.

    The remains of this city feature 2 huge pyramids, the pyramid of the moon which is climbable and the pyramid of the sun, which is the 3rd largest in the region after Tikal and Cholula.

    Within can also be found the 4 mile long ‘Avenue of the dead’ which leads to the place around the moon pyramid which would have been a pilgrimage site.

    There is a lot to learn here and I think I’m only scratching the surface.

  • Dia 17 – Castle Time

    Day 17 – Castle time

    Hola Todos! Today was another day of sightseeing. We were up in good order around 0830 and decided today was a good time to do Chapultepec Castle, so we did just that, hopped into an Uber and headed for the castle.Β 

    It sits inside quite a pretty park and the castle itself is on a hill and is a little bit of a climb but once you get up there you can get a great view of the city. Being early we were the first ones in and had the place to ourselves. Lovely stuff.

    The castle was the former home of Mexico’s short lived Habsburg Austrian emperor, Maximilian I from 1864 to 1867 after which he was executed by the republicans and the castle was then the presidential residence for some years later. It houses a lot of exhibitions from these times as well as showing how the elite of that time lived.

    Inside is an impressive exhibition showing Mexico’s history from the 1521 conquest up to Modern times. Again this place is deserving of it’s own reel.

    After this it was time for Simon and me to part ways as he was flying back to Tijuana in the afternoon. His friend showed up though and we went to the Anthropology museum which again is great to learn the history of the tribes here. Many of which go back thousands of years before the Aztecs 

    I’m planning to do the pyramids tomorrow. Thursday I start my way south.

  • Dia 16 – Lazy Lunes con Aprendizajes Culturales

    Day 16 – Lazy Lunes con aprendizaje de la cultura!

    Hello everyone! Since we left off it was another slow start getting up but up we got about half 9-10 and decided to head out and grab some breakfast somewhere. Ended up going to this cute little place where it was cafΓ© con leche with some fruit juice and a traditional Mexican breakfast – scrambled eggs with molletes and nachos with some spicy sauce. otra vez me quede deliπŸ˜‹ 

    It’s at this point I began to learn that people are more approachable back here than in the UK or the west in general. Si pops out for a smoke and there’s this pretty looking lady who looked around my age sat next to us on her own, I decide to day hello good morning but not much else as my brain kind of 404’d on me and really didn’t have anything much to say. Still she was all happy and smiley someone said hi. Back in blighty it would be anything from being ignored to “F off you creep” to calling for a full on police emergency! Hey it’s day 2 in El Nuevo Mundo and I’m sure there will be plenty of other chances to work on this!

    After this we went for a walk checking out some of the parks near us. It was a very chill vibe all round. Then before you know it, it was nap time once again. Later we went out for food and his friend joined us for drinks again. It was a very chill day all round and I’ve had some sound advice for the road ahead. Tomorrow we will do some more History.

    I also think I’m slowly getting better with the Mexican dialect. By the way if anyone wants to know more about my learning Spanish Journey shout as you can do something on it!

    Adios hasta maΓ±ana! Creo que me gustarΓ‘ este pais!

  • Dia 15 – Sunday Funday

    Day 15 – Sunday Funday.

    Hello everyone. Today’s blog will be a short one as to be honest it was a bit of a wasted day. That said sometimes a chill one is best!

    After hitting that stupid night club we got back to our gaffe around 4 am I think and so we just crashed out and didn’t properly get ourselves out of bed until half 12pm. As you can guess pyramids weren’t happening today. So what now then? Well it was almost lunch time now so we went for a wander and ended up having some tacos and a beer in this nice little restaurant. After this we were going to head to one of the parks but CDMX is a pain to get round and neither of us were up for a walk. So naturally back to our natural habitat, The Doghouse it was!

    We had a few beers out there and just spent the afternoon chatting about life and different things which I’ll skip the details on. After this was a nap and then I got bored and headed back out while Yes stayed back watching Netflix.

    I didn’t go far just had a little look round the block and ended up in a decent little bar and spent time there. 3 pints and a light bite for just shy of a tenner was pretty good. Met some other English speaking lads in there and got chatting but they didn’t hang around as they were flying back to the states in the morning.

    After this I went back to the gaffe and finished with a tinny out on the terrace. About half 11 it was bed for me.

    No idea what the craic is tomorrow. It’s being a bit of a blur and glad I’ll be moving on soon.

  • Dia 14 Begin act 3 – Mexico πŸ‡²πŸ‡½! – Exploring Mexico City!

    Hello good afternoon everyone! So today was day 14 & the first full day in Mexico, in some ways the real day 1 of this trip. 

    Some of you have asked me why didn’t I just fly straight out from Blighty? Well a number of reasons, firstly when I booked the flight it was about Β£500 cheaper to go from Madrid than London. That saving pretty much paid for travel, food & booze minus the ferry for the entire Spain leg plus the Spanish could have done with a brush up & it had been a crazy few weeks before I got going and didn’t want to be getting here with mental health not being good. Also it has been good as several subtle mistakes were made along the way and been corrected – had we made them in a more full on place it could have been disastrous if someone made a move. No quiero dar papaya por supuesto!!

    Onto Mexico city. This place is huge and moving around is quite slow and difficult but Uber is pretty cheap and you can travel round most of the inner city for around Β£5-10 or less. Simon and myself headed into the historic centre by the cathedral for some breakfast in this lovely colonial restaurant. El Desayuno due muy deli πŸ˜‹

    Simon recommended we check out this museum – el museo del Templo Mayor – the old Aztec temple and likely all that’s left that has been excavated from old Tenochtitlan, the former Aztec capital. It was about 4 quid to get in but very worth it. The outside bit is an excavation of what’s left of the temple then inside is a museum with all the things they have dug up from those times.

    It’s very interesting & also the longest there you start to feel uneasy looking at all these things. The Aztecs were barbaric and more bloody sacrificing humans & animals to appease their many unpronounceable gods. If the gods were not given their due the world would end. Again deserves it’s own post to cover properly & have not had time to do but rest assured reels will be coming!

    After this we headed back and had a cheeky beer to finish today’s cultural learning. 

    Later we headed out for beers with Simon’s friend. Will tell you more about him on the next instalment. It ended up being a late one and we ended up in some stupid nightclub where there were more blokes than chicas but hey we got some free Tequilas out of it. Joder! Hemos bebido muchas tequilas y hoy tenemos un gran resaca! Pues cuando estes en Roma? Es lo que hay!!
    I planned to go the pyramids today but doubt it will be happening probably be a blob day. Hablamos Luego!