Oaxtepec sits at roughly thirteen hundred metres on the warm southern side of the volcanic highlands of Morelos, where the air is noticeably softer than in Mexico City, an hour or two north. The Dominican convent here is one of the sixteenth-century monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl that UNESCO listed in 1994, a group built by the first friars after the conquest, with fortress-like walls, a large atrium for open-air preaching and thick buttresses against the earthquakes that have always visited this region.
The place was important long before the friars. Oaxtepec, once Huaxtepec, was a town the Mexica rulers prized for its mild climate and its gardens, and it is often described as having a botanical garden of medicinal and ornamental plants that served the Aztec court. When the Dominicans arrived in the 1520s they chose a site with an existing ceremonial importance, a habit repeated across New Spain, and the convent later served as a hospital. Today the church and cloister stand quietly at the heart of a town whose modern fame comes from something else entirely: a huge public holiday park with pools, which fills with families on weekends.
For riders, the approach is mostly good tarmac with a mix of fast highway, spirited climbs and hot, lazy village roads. The roads from Mexico City cross the pine-covered ridge south of the capital and drop into Morelos in a long, satisfying descent, with views of the plains and, when the air is clear, the snowy cone of Popocatépetl. Rain arrives in the afternoons from June to September, so mornings are best, and the dry months from November to April are warmer and brighter. Watch for topes, the speed bumps at village entrances, which come without much warning.
Oaxtepec itself is small, with fuel and bakeries, but nearby Cocoyoc, a few kilometres off, has more restaurants and a string of old haciendas that have been turned into hotels. The local specialities lean to fruit: Morelos is known for its sweet red tamales, for sorbets and for the fresh juices on every corner, and the market in the town is a good place for a lunch of tacos and a cold agua fresca. Take a moment inside the cloister, where the shade and silence are a good break from the heat of the road.