Historic Centre of Mexico City and Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
327 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 54
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
327 km from Mexico City to Mexico City, about 6 h 54 of riding. It goes by way of Xochimilco 3, Temple and Former Convent of Saint William, Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic and back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Historic Centre of Mexico City is where the day begins. Next is Xochimilco 3.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Xochimilco 3 comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Temple and Former Convent of Saint William.
3. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Temple and Former Convent of Saint William. Next is Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic.
4. Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic
Hueyapan sits high on the southern flank of Popocatépetl, in the far northeast of Morelos, where pine forest and orchards climb toward the volcano and the air is noticeably thinner than in the valleys below. In the sixteenth century, Dominican friars built a convent here dedicated to Santo Domingo, with a simple church, a cloister and a walled atrium where the indigenous population gathered for worship. It is one of the fourteen sites in the UNESCO listing of the Earliest Sixteenth-Century Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatépetl, and while it is more modest than some of its neighbours, its setting is one of the most dramatic.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic, about halfway.
5. Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic
Oaxtepec sits at roughly thirteen hundred metres on the warm southern side of the volcanic highlands of Morelos, where the air is noticeably softer than in Mexico City, an hour or two north. The Dominican convent here is one of the sixteenth-century monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl that UNESCO listed in 1994, a group built by the first friars after the conquest, with fortress-like walls, a large atrium for open-air preaching and thick buttresses against the earthquakes that have always visited this region.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic comes up about 208 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint William.
7. back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint William
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 327 km.
Leg by leg
Historic Centre of Mexico City to Xochimilco 3
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 to Temple and Former Convent of Saint William
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 to Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic
Temple and Former Convent of Saint William → Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic to Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic → Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic to back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic → back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic to back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint William
back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic → back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint William is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint William to back through Xochimilco 3
back through 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 to Historic Centre of Mexico City
back through Xochimilco 3 → Historic Centre of Mexico City is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.