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.
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 252 km round trip from Mexico City - roughly 4 h 32 in the saddle. On the way it passes Xochimilco 2, 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. The line favours views over speed.
Under the paving of the Zocalo there is a lake bed, and under that, the island city of Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs founded it in the fourteenth century on a swampy island in Lake Texcoco, linked it to the shore with causeways and filled the lake with floating gardens, and when Hernan Cortes arrived in 1519 he found a city larger and cleaner than any in Spain. After the conquest in 1521 the Spaniards drained the lake, built their cathedral on the ruins and began a new capital, and the result is the layered centre we see today. The Metropolitan Cathedral, a huge, ponderous baroque pile that took nearly three centuries to finish, leans noticeably, because the ground beneath it is soft clay, and engineers have spent decades trying to stop it sinking unevenly.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of México write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic centre of the city of México 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 33 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.
65 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 130 km, about halfway. 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 comes up 163 km in. Next is Historic centre of the city of México.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of México write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic centre of the city of México closes the day.
Historic centre of the city of México → Xochimilco 2 is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xochimilco 2 → Ancient Convent of the Nativity is 43 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 2 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Xochimilco 2 → Historic centre of the city of México is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.