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 224 km round trip from Ojo de Agua - roughly 3 h 40 in the saddle. On the way it passes Former college of San Francisco Javier in, Historic Centre of Mexico City, Xochimilco 2 and back through Historic Centre of Mexico City. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Silver came out of the mountains of the north, and everything else came back the other way: wine, cloth, tools, tobacco and soldiers. The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was the road that carried it all, running from Mexico City to Santa Fe, and it opened in the late sixteenth century and remained in use for roughly three hundred years. It crossed rivers and ravines, and where it did, the Spanish built bridges, a number of which have survived. The bridge of Atongo is one of the stone bridges along the road in the state of Mexico, close to Jilotepec.
Read the complete Bridge of Atongo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bridge of Atongo 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 44 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 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Mexico City. Next is Xochimilco 2.
Before the Spanish arrived, the Valley of Mexico was a land of lakes, and the people who lived around them developed an ingenious way to farm the water. They built chinampas, artificial islands of mud and vegetation anchored by willow trees, separated by canals, and grew maize, beans, squash and flowers on them. In Xochimilco, in the south of Mexico City, a remnant of that world survives, with a network of canals and chinampas that is still farmed and navigated today. It is part of the UNESCO listing of the Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco, and the most famous image of the area is the trajinera, a brightly painted flat-bottomed boat that carries visitors along the canals, often accompanied by mariachi bands and floating food stalls.
Read the complete Xochimilco 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Xochimilco 2, about halfway. 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.
back through Historic Centre of Mexico City sits at 161 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 180 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bridge of Atongo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bridge of Atongo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bridge of Atongo closes the day.
Bridge of Atongo → Former college of San Francisco Javier in is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 2 is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xochimilco 2 → back through Historic Centre of Mexico City is 23 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 → Bridge of Atongo is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.