CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
247 km from Mexico City to Mexico City, about 4 h 20 of riding. It goes by way of Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1, Ancient Convent of the Nativity, Temple and Former Convent of Saint Mathhew and back through Ancient Convent of the Nativity. 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.
In February 1978, electricity workers digging a trench near the Zocalo struck a huge carved stone disc, and the city found out what lay under its feet. The stone showed the dismembered goddess Coyolxauhqui, and it marked the base of the Templo Mayor, the double temple at the heart of Tenochtitlan. That accident changed Mexico City's idea of itself, and the colonial streets around the cathedral have since been opened up to reveal the Aztec capital below. The historic centre and the canals of Xochimilco, to the south, were inscribed together on the World Heritage list in 1987, because between them they tell how a lake civilisation became a colonial city.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi is where the day begins. Next is Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1.
Mexico City is built on a lake, or rather it was, and Xochimilco is the part of that old water world that survived. Before the Spanish, the Aztecs and their neighbours built chinampas, narrow artificial islands of mud and reeds held in place by willow trees, and farmed them intensively to feed Tenochtitlan. Canals ran between the plots, and the whole system was a remarkably productive kind of garden. A part of it still works, and it earned a place on UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1987. The name is Nahuatl and means roughly the place of flowers, which suits the nurseries that fill the district.
Read the complete Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 comes up 32 km in. Next is Ancient Convent of the Nativity.
Tepoztlán sits at the foot of a wall of jagged volcanic cliffs in northern Morelos, and on the highest ridge above town, a small Aztec pyramid, the Tepozteco, dedicated to the god of pulque, clings to the rock. Down in the town, the Dominican convent of the Nativity, built in the mid-sixteenth century, is one of the monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl listed by UNESCO in 1994. Its massive church, with a facade carved with angels, the sun and the moon, and a large atrium, is impressive, and the cloister has remains of colourful mural paintings. Part of the convent houses a museum.
Read the complete Ancient Convent of the Nativity write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
63 km in you reach Ancient Convent of the Nativity. Next is Temple and Former Convent of Saint Mathhew.
In the green valleys south of Mexico City, on the slopes below Popocatépetl, sixteenth-century friars built a chain of fortress-like monasteries, and the church and former convent of San Mateo at Atlatlahucan is one of them. The Augustinians arrived in the 1530s, after the Spanish conquest, and set about converting the local Nahua population, building enormous, thick-walled churches with open-air chapels where crowds could attend mass in the courtyard. The group of fourteen early monasteries on the slopes of the volcano was listed by UNESCO in 1994, and the architecture is a rare sight: plain, defensive on the outside, but inside the cloister are murals painted in black and white by indigenous artists under the friars' direction.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint Mathhew write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Mathhew, about halfway. Next is back through Ancient Convent of the Nativity.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient Convent of the Nativity write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ancient Convent of the Nativity sits at 127 km, about halfway. Next is back through Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 comes up 158 km in. Next is Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi closes the day.
Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi → Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 → Ancient Convent of the Nativity is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancient Convent of the Nativity → Temple and Former Convent of Saint Mathhew is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Mathhew → back through Ancient Convent of the Nativity is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancient Convent of the Nativity → back through Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 → Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.