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 245 km round trip from Tepotzotlán - roughly 4 h 09 in the saddle. It goes by way of Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji, Town of Aculco, Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco and back through Town of Aculco. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji.
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.
Read the complete Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Town of Aculco.
Aculco is a quiet stone town in the northwest of the State of Mexico, on the high plateau at well over two thousand metres, where the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the colonial road to the north, passed through on its way from Mexico City. The town was a staging post, and its well-preserved centre, with a broad plaza, the Franciscan church and convent of San Jerónimo and old houses built of pinkish stone, is part of the UNESCO listing for the route. It was here, in November 1810, that royalist troops defeated Miguel Hidalgo's insurgent army, an early setback in the War of Independence that people still mention with a kind of local pride.
Read the complete Town of Aculco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Town of Aculco. Next is Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco.
For almost three centuries, wagon trains loaded with silver rolled north and south along the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the royal road that linked Mexico City with the mining towns of the north and eventually with Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico. It was one of the longest trade routes in the Americas, carrying silver, mercury, goods, people and ideas across thousands of kilometres. In 2010 UNESCO listed a series of sites along the route, including stretches of the old road, bridges, haciendas and towns. This section, between Aculco and San Juan del Río, crosses the high plateau on the border between the State of Mexico and Querétaro.
Read the complete Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco, about halfway. Next is back through Town of Aculco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Town of Aculco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Town of Aculco sits at 179 km, about halfway. Next is back through Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji comes up about 214 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Former college of San Francisco Javier in closes the day.
Former college of San Francisco Javier in → Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji → Town of Aculco is 63 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Town of Aculco → Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stretch of the Camino Real between Aculco → back through Town of Aculco is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Town of Aculco → back through Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Former convent of San Francisco in Tepeji → Former college of San Francisco Javier in is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.