Tepeji del Río is a busy town in the state of Hidalgo, on the old road north from Mexico City, and at its heart stands a sixteenth-century Franciscan convent, one of the many fortress-like monasteries built by the friars in the first decades after the Spanish conquest to evangelise the indigenous population. The church has a sober façade, a large open atrium where crowds of converts once gathered for mass, and a cloister with traces of mural paintings. The convent stands on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of that route. Like many of these early convents, it combines European Gothic and Renaissance forms with the work of indigenous craftsmen, whose hand can be seen in the carvings and paintings.
The town has grown into an industrial centre, with factories along the highway, and the historic core is small. But a short ride north lies one of the most important archaeological sites in Mexico. Tula was the capital of the Toltecs, who dominated central Mexico between the tenth and twelfth centuries, and its most famous monuments are the Atlantes, four giant stone warriors, each several metres tall, standing on top of a pyramid. They once supported the roof of a temple, and they gaze out over the valley with a stern, mysterious expression. The Toltecs were remembered by the later Aztecs as a people of great artistic and military achievement, and their legends of the god Quetzalcoatl spread across Mesoamerica.
The riding is not the main attraction here. The highway from Mexico City to Querétaro, which passes Tepeji, is one of the busiest in the country, heavily used by trucks, and it can be dangerous. The smaller roads to Tula and the surrounding towns are better, but traffic is still heavy, and the landscape is a mix of farmland, industrial zones and dry hills. Further north, the Valle del Mezquital, home to the Otomí people, has thermal springs and canyons.
Tepeji has fuel, mechanics, shops and restaurants. Try barbacoa, lamb slow-cooked in an underground pit wrapped in maguey leaves, a speciality of Hidalgo, usually eaten on weekend mornings. Check the current travel advice, ride in daylight, and use toll roads where possible.