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 275 km round trip from Tepotzotlán - roughly 5 h 03 in the saddle. It goes by way of Xochimilco 2, Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th and back through Xochimilco 2. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,800 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 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 comes up about 68 km into the recorded legs. Next is Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th.
In the 1530s and 1540s, Augustinian friars arrived in the valleys below Popocatépetl to convert the local population, and they built churches that look half like cathedrals and half like castles. The convent of San Juan Bautista in Yecapixtla is one of the finest: a tall, fortress-like church with crenellated walls, a striking Gothic rose window over the entrance and a vast atrium where the indigenous congregation gathered for open-air services. It is part of the UNESCO listing of the Earliest Sixteenth-Century Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatépetl, a group of fourteen convents across Morelos and Puebla.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 137 km into the recorded legs you reach Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th. Next is back through Xochimilco 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Xochimilco 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Xochimilco 2, late in the day. 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.
Back at Former college of San Francisco Javier in. That is the ride.
Former college of San Francisco Javier in → Xochimilco 2 is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Xochimilco 2 → Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th → back through Xochimilco 2 is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Xochimilco 2 → Former college of San Francisco Javier in is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.