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 394 km round trip from Polanco - roughly 7 h 24 in the saddle. It goes by way of Xochimilco 3, Temple and Former Convent of Saint William, Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic and Historic Centre of Puebla. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
From the street, Luis Barragán's house looks like nothing. A plain facade in Tacubaya, a mixed and busy neighbourhood of Mexico City, with a wooden door and a few windows, gives no hint of the colour behind it. Barragán, the Mexican architect who won the Pritzker Prize in 1980, built the house in 1948 as his own home and studio, and he lived and worked here until his death in 1988. The UNESCO listing of 2004 recognised it as one of the key works of modern architecture, in which light, colour, silence and simple geometry do all the talking.
Read the complete Luis Barragán House and Studio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Luis Barragán House and Studio is where the day begins. Next is 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.
Read the complete Xochimilco 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Xochimilco 3 comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint William write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Temple and Former Convent of Saint William. Next is 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.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic, about halfway. Next is Historic Centre of Puebla.
Puebla was founded in 1531 as a Spanish city from the start, laid out on a grid between the volcanoes and the road from Veracruz to Mexico City, and it grew into one of the richest towns of New Spain. Its historic centre is a World Heritage site, and walking through it you see why: dozens of churches, palaces and mansions, many covered in the hand-painted Talavera tiles for which the city is still famous. The cathedral, with its two tall towers, dominates the main square, and a few blocks away the Rosary Chapel of the church of Santo Domingo is a dazzling space of gilded stucco and carved angels that has to be seen to be believed.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Puebla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Puebla sits at 189 km, about halfway. Next is back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic comes up about 270 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint William.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint William write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 311 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint William. Next is back through Xochimilco 3.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Xochimilco 3 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Xochimilco 3, late in the day. Next is Luis Barragán House and Studio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Luis Barragán House and Studio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 394 km.
Luis Barragán House and Studio → Xochimilco 3 is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → 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 → Historic Centre of Puebla is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centre of Puebla → back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Dominic is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
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 → back through Xochimilco 3 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Xochimilco 3 → Luis Barragán House and Studio is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.