Friday Faces: Town Fiesta of Cholula, Mexico


This weeks Friday Faces goes back to an absolutely crazy weekend spent in the small town of Cholula, a couple of hours outside of Mexico City.

It all started when we went to visit Puebla for a few days and ended up in the neighboring town of Cholula to explore an ancient temple buried underneath a church. After spending a nervous half hour in narrow tunnels, facing my worst nightmare of getting trapped underground, we safely re-surfaced into the harsh Mexican sun and smack bang in the middle of a massive street party.

Celebrating some famous battle victory, from centuries ago, the whole town was out and about, dressed up, drinking in the street and firing extremely loud gunpowder rounds every few seconds. We sat and watched in awe as the streets came alive with music, dancing and 12 year old boys carrying guns. This snap comes from a passer by child, dressed in celebratory clothing and anxiously holding his fathers hand. He looked extremely involved in the infectious commotion, but flinched nervously at each sudden explosion of noise. We managed to get a hesitant wave and smile out of him, right before he disappeared into the haze of the fiesta.

After an hour of horse parades, pole twirling teens and marching men we positioned yourselves in the central plaza with a couple of beers and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. The party continued on for many hours after that, and so did the beers. By the end of the night, with our ears ringing from gunshots, we called it a night and went home to eat tacos. Only in Mexico!

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Julian Hatfield

Jules is an avid traveler, community development worker and a surfing addict. He's spent the past four years working in non-profits throughout Latin America and Southeast Asia, with a lot of island pit-stops and wild adventures along the way. Adventure travel that respects and gives back to local culture and environment is his main priority...and Mexican food. Wanna know more?

6 thoughts on “Friday Faces: Town Fiesta of Cholula, Mexico”

  1. The boy’s just adorable. Yet looks kind of upset. Guess it was time for him to go home and he didn’t want to leave the awesome celebration?

  2. Great capture of the kid! The colors are so strong and his emotions are spilling from his face. He looks quite unsure of what’s coming next.

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