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.
199 km from Xochimilco to Xochimilco, about 4 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi, Xochimilco 3, Temple and Former Convent of Saint William and back through Xochimilco 3. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi.
In February 1978, electricity workers digging a trench near the Zocalo struck a huge carved stone disc, and the city found out what lay under its feet. The stone showed the dismembered goddess Coyolxauhqui, and it marked the base of the Templo Mayor, the double temple at the heart of Tenochtitlan. That accident changed Mexico City's idea of itself, and the colonial streets around the cathedral have since been opened up to reveal the Aztec capital below. The historic centre and the canals of Xochimilco, to the south, were inscribed together on the World Heritage list in 1987, because between them they tell how a lake civilisation became a colonial city.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Xochimilco 3. 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.
Temple and Former Convent of Saint William, about halfway. 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 sits at 133 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi comes up about 178 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 closes the day.
Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 → Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi → Xochimilco 3 is 38 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 → back through Xochimilco 3 is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Xochimilco 3 → back through Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimi → Xochimilco Federal District: Xochimilco 1 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.