CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 414 km round trip from Santiago Tepeyahualco - roughly 7 h 34 in the saddle. It goes by way of Former college of San Francisco Javier in, Historic Centre of Mexico City, Xochimilco 3 and Temple and Former Convent of Saint William. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
In the sixteenth century a Franciscan friar called Francisco de Tembleque looked at the dry highlands north-east of Mexico City, where villages had trouble finding clean water, and decided to bring it from springs on the slopes of a volcano forty-five kilometres away. The result, built between 1553 and about 1571 with the labour of local Indigenous communities, is one of the longest aqueduct systems of its age in the Americas, and it still stands on a high arcade of stone arches crossing a valley. The longest arcade runs for nearly a kilometre, and the tallest arch is about forty metres high, a slender, elegant bridge on thin piers, which is why you can see it for miles across the plain.
Read the complete Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic Syst write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic Syst is where the day begins. Next is Former college of San Francisco Javier in.
Tepotzotlán is a Pueblo Mágico just off the highway north of Mexico City, and its heart is a building that stops you in your tracks. The old Jesuit college of San Francisco Javier was a training centre for the order in New Spain, a place where novices learned theology and native languages before being sent out across the colony. When the Jesuits were expelled in 1767 the college passed to others, and today it houses the National Museum of the Viceroyalty, one of the best collections of colonial art in the country. It also forms part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the silver road that ran north from the capital towards Santa Fe, inscribed by UNESCO in 2010.
Read the complete Former college of San Francisco Javier in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Former college of San Francisco Javier in comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Mexico City.
The Zócalo, the vast main square of Mexico City, is one of the largest public squares in the world, and standing in it you are at the centre of over seven hundred years of history. This was the heart of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, built on an island in Lake Texcoco and home to perhaps two hundred thousand people when the Spanish arrived in 1519. After the conquest, Hernán Cortés's men built their new city directly on top of the ruins, using the stones of the temples to construct churches and palaces. The historic centre, together with the canals of Xochimilco to the south, was listed by UNESCO in 1987.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Mexico City write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 132 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Mexico City. Next is Xochimilco 3.
San Andrés Mixquic sits on the southeastern edge of Mexico City, in the borough of Tláhuac, and it feels like a village despite being part of one of the largest cities on earth. It is famous throughout Mexico for its Day of the Dead celebrations, when the cemetery around the church of San Andrés fills with marigolds, candles and families who keep vigil through the night of 2 November, and the whole town turns into a festival of altars, music and food. The rest of the year, Mixquic is a quiet place of canals, chinampas and vegetable fields.
Read the complete Xochimilco 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Xochimilco 3, about halfway. Next is Temple and Former Convent of Saint William.
Totolapan is a small town on the northern slopes of the Sierra de Chichinautzin, in the state of Morelos, and its Augustinian convent of San Guillermo is one of the fourteen sixteenth-century monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl that UNESCO listed in 1994. The friars who came to Mexico after the conquest built these fortress-like complexes to convert the indigenous population, with huge walled atriums where crowds could gather for open-air masses, chapels at the corners for processions, and austere churches with thick walls. Totolapan's convent is relatively modest, but its simplicity and setting give it a special charm.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint William write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint William sits at 201 km, about halfway. Next is back through Xochimilco 3.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Xochimilco 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Xochimilco 3 comes up about 252 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Historic Centre of Mexico City.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Mexico City write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 290 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Historic Centre of Mexico City. Next is back through Former college of San Francisco Javier in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Former college of San Francisco Javier in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Former college of San Francisco Javier in, late in the day. Next is Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic Syst.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic Syst write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 414 km.
Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic Syst → Former college of San Francisco Javier in is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Former college of San Francisco Javier in → Historic Centre of Mexico City is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Mexico City → Xochimilco 3 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xochimilco 3 → Temple and Former Convent of Saint William is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint William → back through Xochimilco 3 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Xochimilco 3 → back through Historic Centre of Mexico City is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Mexico City → back through Former college of San Francisco Javier in is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Former college of San Francisco Javier in → Aqueduct of Padre Tembleque Hydraulic Syst is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.