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.
298 km from Coxcatlán to Coxcatlán, about 5 h 16 of riding. The stops in between: Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit, San Juan Raya and back through Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
A wide dry valley, forests of cactus and, hidden among them, one of the oldest dams in the Americas. Purron is the name of a huge earthen embankment in the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan valley of southern Puebla, built perhaps two and a half thousand years ago, and over the centuries it grew to be one of the largest dams of ancient Mesoamerica, holding water for fields in a land that gets little rain. It does not look like much from the road: a long, low ridge of earth and stone, covered in scrub. But it is a testament to the farmers who lived here, in a valley where agriculture was already old when the Egyptians were building pyramids, and where early maize was grown thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Purrón write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Purrón is where the day begins. Next is Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit.
The Tehuacán-Cuicatlán valley is a dry trench between the mountains of Puebla and Oaxaca, and it holds one of the richest deserts in the world. Rain falls rarely here, since the high ranges on either side block the moisture, and in that shadow grow forests of columnar cactus, some of the densest anywhere. Candelabra-shaped tetechos and tall organ pipes stand shoulder to shoulder across the hills, with agaves, yuccas and tree-like plants whose bark peels in red papery sheets.
Read the complete Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit comes up 54 km in. Next is San Juan Raya.
San Juan Raya is a village in a dry valley in the state of Puebla, and it is famous for two reasons that sit oddly together: a ruined sixteenth-century chapel and the sea. The sea part is ancient. The hills around the village are made of rock laid down in a shallow marine basin more than a hundred million years ago, and they are full of fossil snails and other shells, so many that you can find them on the ground. A small local museum, run by the community, shows the best of them. The valley is part of the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Biosphere Reserve, listed by UNESCO in 2018, partly because this is one of the places where maize and other crops were first domesticated, thousands of years ago.
Read the complete San Juan Raya write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
107 km in you reach San Juan Raya. Next is back through Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit, late in the day. Next is Purrón.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Purrón write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Purrón. That is the ride.
Purrón → Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit → San Juan Raya is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
San Juan Raya → back through Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley: originary habit → Purrón is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.