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 67 km round trip from Xochimilco - roughly 1 h 30 in the saddle. The stops in between: Central University City Campus of the Univ, Historic centre of the city of México and back through Central University City Campus of the Univ. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 is where the day begins. Next is Central University City Campus of the Univ.
The main campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, known as Ciudad Universitaria, is one of the great architectural achievements of the twentieth century. Built between 1949 and 1952 on a field of lava from the ancient eruption of the Xitle volcano, in the south of Mexico City, it brought together dozens of architects, engineers and artists to create a modern campus that would blend international modernism with Mexican traditions. Its most famous building is the Central Library, a tall block covered entirely in a mosaic by Juan O'Gorman, depicting the history of Mexico from pre-Hispanic times to the modern era. UNESCO listed the campus in 2007.
Read the complete Central University City Campus of the Univ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central University City Campus of the Univ comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic centre of the city of México.
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.
about 35 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic centre of the city of México. Next is back through Central University City Campus of the Univ.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Central University City Campus of the Univ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Central University City Campus of the Univ, late in the day. Next is 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.
Back at Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1. That is the ride.
Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 → Central University City Campus of the Univ is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Central University City Campus of the Univ → Historic centre of the city of México is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic centre of the city of México → back through Central University City Campus of the Univ is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Central University City Campus of the Univ → Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.