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.
357 km from Tetela del Volcán to Tetela del Volcán, about 6 h 03 of riding. The stops in between: Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael, Xochimilco 2 and back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Tetela del Volcán lives in the shadow of Popocatépetl. The town sits at about two thousand metres on the southern slope of the volcano in the state of Morelos, and the snow-capped cone, often trailing a plume of steam and ash, looms over everything. In the middle of town stands the sixteenth-century church and former convent of San Juan Bautista, founded by Dominican friars in the decades after the Spanish conquest. Its cloister has some remarkable murals, painted in muted reds and blacks, showing saints and friars of the order. It is one of the fourteen monasteries on the slopes of Popocatépetl that were added to the World Heritage list in 1994 as a group.
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 Saint Michael.
Behind a crenellated wall in the middle of Huejotzingo lies one of the earliest Christian buildings in the Americas: the Franciscan convent of San Miguel Arcángel, built in the decades after the Spanish conquest on the lower slopes of the volcanoes west of Puebla. The friars arrived here within a few years of the fall of Tenochtitlan, and the church, convent and walled atrium they raised are a textbook example of how the missionaries worked, with great open courtyards where crowds of indigenous converts could gather for teaching and mass. Huejotzingo is part of the UNESCO site of the Earliest Sixteenth-Century Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatépetl, listed in 1994.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 179 km into the recorded legs you reach Xochimilco 2. Next is back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael, 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.
Back at Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th. That is the ride.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th → Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael → Xochimilco 2 is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Xochimilco 2 → back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael is 102 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Temple and Former Convent of Saint Michael → Temple and Former Convent of Saint John th is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.