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 424 km round trip from Tlayacapan - roughly 7 h 15 in the saddle. The stops in between: Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio, Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1, Former college of San Francisco Javier in and Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Tlayacapan lies in the north of Morelos, among dry hills, with Popocatépetl, the smoking volcano, standing in the distance. Its convent of San Juan Bautista is one of a number of fortress-like monasteries built by Augustinian, Franciscan and Dominican friars in the sixteenth century, within a few decades of the Spanish conquest, and they are among the earliest European buildings in the Americas. UNESCO listed the group in 1994. The church has a plain, heavy front and an open-air chapel, where the friars preached to crowds who were not yet used to indoor services.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th is where the day begins. Next is Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio.
The Franciscans arrived in Cuernavaca in the 1520s, just a few years after the Spanish conquest, and the fortress like convent they built here, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin, is now the city's cathedral. Its massive church, with walls thick enough for defence and an open chapel for preaching to crowds of indigenous converts, is one of the earliest sixteenth century monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl listed as a World Heritage Site in 1994. Inside, murals uncovered in the twentieth century show the martyrdom of Christian missionaries in Japan in 1597, a striking reminder of how far the Franciscan world reached; one of the martyrs, Felipe de Jesús, was born in Mexico City.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 106 km into the recorded legs you reach Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1. Next is Former college of San Francisco Javier in.
Tepotzotlán is a Pueblo Mágico just off the highway north of Mexico City, and its heart is a building that stops you in your tracks. The old Jesuit college of San Francisco Javier was a training centre for the order in New Spain, a place where novices learned theology and native languages before being sent out across the colony. When the Jesuits were expelled in 1767 the college passed to others, and today it houses the National Museum of the Viceroyalty, one of the best collections of colonial art in the country. It also forms part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the silver road that ran north from the capital towards Santa Fe, inscribed by UNESCO in 2010.
Read the complete Former college of San Francisco Javier in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Former college of San Francisco Javier in, about halfway. Next is Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri.
Aculco is a small town in the highlands of the State of Mexico, a place of cobbled streets, white walls with red trim and a church that stands over everything, and it has been a stop on the road north for as long as there has been a road. The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the old silver highway that connected Mexico City with the mines of Zacatecas and the far north, passed through this area, and a stretch of it near Aculco, with old paving and stonework, survives as part of the World Heritage listing. The Franciscans founded a convent in Aculco in the sixteenth century, and the town retains its colonial look, with arcades around the plaza and a quiet that comes from being a few hours from the capital and a world away.
Read the complete Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through Former college of San Francisco Javier in.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Former college of San Francisco Javier in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Former college of San Francisco Javier in comes up about 257 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 325 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1. Next is back through Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio, late in the day. Next is Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 424 km.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th → Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio → Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 → Former college of San Francisco Javier in is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Former college of San Francisco Javier in → Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stretch of the Camino Real between the bri → back through Former college of San Francisco Javier in is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Former college of San Francisco Javier in → back through Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 → back through Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Temple and Former Convent of the Assomptio → Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.