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Colonial Transportation and Lights for Night


By MADERA_32 - Posted on 25 May 2013

I have been wondering alot about how it must have been like to travel on carriages pulled by horses when they travel to other towns. Also the methods for using lights at night during the colonial days.

If the Conde Fernando Campo de Cos of Hacienda San Mateo from Valparaiso, Zacatecas, Mexico had to travel to the city of Zacatecas. In today's methods of travel it would have been a 3 hour drive on car.

But in a colonial carriage it would have taken days. So what would have they done at night? I would think that they would have stopped at relief stations which are a number of villages that are along the highway. And those villages still exist to this day. That would have been more comfortable to travel during the day along the highway and stop at a village at night. The horse would have to be exchanged for fresh horses to travel on the next day.

Now regarding the lighting used for night time. Lots of candles and imagine the smell of candle wax inside the buildings and outside along the streets in the towns.