Otomi Ceremonial Center + Temoaya (Mexico), 26.02.06

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GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 105 Km, Ascent: 1938 m, Time: 6:05 hr, Avg Speed: 17.2 Km/hr, Max Speed: 66.4 Km/hr

Travel Report:

Wow ! This was really a multitudinous, cyclist riding, at least for my standards ! Eight cyclists made the route ! An army of cyclists, if you mind :-)

The rendezvous point was the Independence Angel monument, on Reforma. From here, at 08:30 eight cyclists started the ride towards the Otomi Ceremonial Center (OCC), in Mexico State. The taken was: Lomas Verdes Av (alt: 2300 m), San Mateo Nopala (2500 m), Santa María Mazatla (2900 m), the Iturbide Dam (3375 m), Las Palomas (3500 m) and finally, the OCC (3200 m).

As you can see in the route altigraphy (present in the photoset), the route, starting from the Lomas Verdes Av. is one of a continued ascent all the way to Las Palomas, just before the deviation to the OCC. After reaching the main intermediate points along the route, there are some very little descents, but aside from this little rests, the road is one of continued ascent.

When the group arrived to the Iturbide dam, the cyclists stopped there to eat some quesadillas. After that meal, the rest of the group decided it was too late to try to reach the OCC, with me as the sole cyclist still wishing to arrive at it.

We told ourselves farewell and I parted away towards the Otomi Ceremonial Center. After leaving the Iturbide dam, I continued to a place called Las Palomas. It is in that location where the deviation to the OCC stands, But as I was delighted watching the wonderful vistas alongside the route, I somehow missed the deviation ... and continued cycling 15 Km along the road, ignorant that I had already missed my way, and I was cycling now towards a town named Jiquipilco !

The biggest problem is that on my failed path, I was now descending ! Descent that I would have again to ascend later in order to arrive back at the junction in Las Palomas, in order to take the right road to the OCC ! In total I descended 250 m more that what was in fact needed :-(

As I was approaching Jiquiplico (alt: 3250 m), one taxi driver warned me about my mistake ... so I turned around and started to ascend those 15 Km long, 250 m altitude-wise road I had mistakenly cycled. As soon as I arrived at Las Palomas cross, I saw a label showing the right road towards the OCC. 10 Km after I could finally arrive at the OCC :-)

The Otomi Ceremonial Center is an gigantic architectural tribute to one of the oldest indigenous cultures in Mexico: the otomi people. It was built over an extension of more than 85 hectares in 1976 by the Mexico State governor Jorge Jimenez Cantu, in what once was the ancient otomian city of Temoaya. The purpose of the building of the Otomi Ceremonial Center was to: pay tribute to the memory and present of this ancient indigineous culture, in order to preserve the cultural values, the identity of the people and the family cohesion of the otomian ethnic group, located at the northeast of Toluca (Mexico State capital). Additionally, this center is used nowadays as a state-owned high-performance athletic training center, owed to its high altitude: 3200 m.

Once in entered in the OCC, I went inside as far as I was allowed, stopping in fact up to the point where a label stated: No trespassing allowed past this point, just for athletes ! So I had to stop there and start taking photographs :-( From that point it was possible to see the entrance to the athletes villa.

I receded then to a more frontal point, i.e. a point where I could take a photo from the big main building: an enormous pyramid-like building that dominates the view. You can have a look at it in the following photoset. In the front of the stairs that drive to the pyramid there is a big statue of some otomian god.

After finishing my photo session of the Otomi Ceremonial Center, I started my cycling down to Temoaya (Nahuatl for: where all descend). The road is one of steep descent and bad road conditions, with a lot of holes in the pavement, making this ride to Temoaya particularly dangerous. I passed along my descent to Temoaya by towns with funny names like: San Pedro de Arriba, and later: San Pedro de Abajo :-)

Once in Temoaya, I paid a visit to its beautiful church, main square and local market. After taking some shots, I took the return bus to Mexico City, arriving later at the Toreo terminal with no incidents :-)

Ah, please don't forget to have a look at the above linked GPS track video. I hope you could like it (and its soundtrack) :-)

Thank you for reading. Till the next journey.

Texmelucan (Puebla), 19.02.06

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GPS Track: GPX (MapSource, et al.) or KMZ (Google Earth)

GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 150 Km, Ascent: 1990 m, Time: 7:23 hr, Avg Speed: 20.6 Km/hr, Max Speed: 70.1 Km/hr

Travel Report:

This ride started and finished in the sub-urban train eastern terminus of La Paz, being made with the company of a fellow cyclist. The route used was the paid highway to Puebla, up to Texmelucan, both ways: cycling to Texmelucan (alt: 2250) and cycling back to Mexico City (2250 m). This route involved a double ascension to the Llano Grande summit (alt: 3220 m).

As this was a routine riding, mainly intended for training, there are no much things that could be related. At our arrival to Texmelucan, we headed to its market in order to have a delicious meal. We took some pictures of its beautiful cathedral and its stunning interior.

We cycled our way back to Mexico City, arriving at La Paz terminus with no problems at all.

Thank you for reading. Till the next journey.

Tepatlaxco Archaeological Site + Texmelucan (Puebla), 12.02.06

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Distance: 86.61 Km, Ascent: 1060 m, Time: 4:30 hr, Avg Speed: 18.6 Km/hr, Max Speed: 63.7 Km/hr

Travel Report:

This ride started at the late hour of 10:30 at the sub-urban train eastern terminus La Paz. From here I took my usual way to arrive at the paid highway to Puebla. Along the route on the highway I could observe several trucks with big religious images. This trucks belonged to a religious pilgrimage from some towns in Puebla to Chalma, in the Mexico State.

I cycled my way to the Llano Grande summit (alt: 3200 m), descending later to Texmelucan, where I branched out of the highway to Puebla, riding to Texmelucan.

In that city, I took the free highway to Mexico City, in order to reach the town of Tepatlaxco, 4 Km east of Texmelucan. I arrived at Tepatlaxco with no problems at all, but the ordeal hadn't still begonen :-(

The archaeological site of Tepatlaxco is located far far away from the town that bears the same name. In fact, the road to the archaeological site starts where the town ends. The track to the site is a tortuous road covered with a 20 cm deep, fine powder-like dust layer, that rendered futile any attempt to cycle in the road. So I had to walk in this almost incredible fine dust with only a pair of light sandals ... and pushing my bicycle :-( That was a nightmare. How in hell this 20 cm deep layer of fine dust could have appeared here along all the way to the site ? Only God knows ! But I was here and I didn't plan to retreat :-)

Adding insult to the injury, this road was a climbing one ! Hell ... I continued pushing my bike in this ascending path what seemed to me to last about one kilometer, until some label appeared from nowhere stating that the site was only 200 m ahead. The good news was that the terrain on the new road was firm, i.e. without that cursed dust layer. A dirt road, but walkable. My heart was obliterated with happiness now :-)

After following a zigzag altitude-wise road along rocks and other amenities, I did finally arrive at the archaeological site. This site houses two main pyramids. One is called The Palace, and the other the East Slope. Between both buildings stands an area that was probably used for the Ball Game. I would kindly recommend you having a look at both beautiful pyramids and also at the Ball Game area in the following photoset.

Curiously, when I was roaming over the site in order to study it and taking some photographs of it, arrived at the site about five youngsters in bike, I supposed from the nearby town. They just had a look (at a respectful distance) of me and my activities in the site. As I was the only one visitor in the site, I think they find it wise to act as chaperons while I was still in the site. As soon as I finished my visit and abandoned the site, my chaperons departed with me :-)

Arghh, the same way back, that bloody 20 cm dust layer track ... but at least it was downwards now :-) When I reached the town of Tepatlaxco, I headed for its center, and when I reached its church ... I was rewarded by a grateful surprise: a cycling pilgrimage was arriving back to the town, after having made a pilgrimage to Chalma ! This was really a superb experience !

I don't know exactly how many cyclist arrived at the Tepatlaxco church in the very moments I was photographing its facade, but I guess they exceeded one hundred. When they start to arrive at the church, the bells were singing uninterruptedly, as if the sky were falling to earth :-) In some instants, the whole church atrium was full of bicycles, its owners going inside the church to give thanks for the pilgrimage and the coming back to home.

Once the cyclist started to abandon the church, I left the town, cycling my way back to Texmelucan, the last 5 km leg of the travel. In Texmelucan I took the bus back home, arriving at Mexico City without complications.

Thank you for reading. Till the next travel.

Tlalancaleca (Puebla), 05.02.06

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GPS Track: GPX (MapSource, et al.) or KMZ (Google Earth)

GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 133.1 Km, Ascent: 1860 m, Time: 6:43 hr, Avg Speed: 20 Km/hr, Max Speed: 60 Km/hr

Travel Report:

This ride belong to a set of cycling rides that were performed with the declared intention of training and adapting to the conditions of harsh and long summit ascents. That is why I decided to ride towards Texmelucan (elev: 2250 m) in the eastern state of Puebla, from Mexico City (elev: 2250 m), return in bike included, having to cross twice the Llano Grande summit (elev: 3220 m). That was before I discovered my today beloved climbing route: Mexico CIty - Cuernavaca Center (Morelos) - Mexico City, with 2400 m of total ascent in a 150 Km route, but this is another story :-)

In that beginnings cycling rides series I was determined to be able to make the ride: Mexico City - Texmelucan - Mexico City, departing and arriving at the eastern sub-urban train terminus of La Paz, without problems. In order to adapt to this climbing rides I started making that trip with intermediate points as destinations, leaving for the next week ride the cycling towards towns more and more distant from Mexico City.

I remember I started making that round cycling ride week-wise to Llano Grande, Río Frío, Sta Rita Tlahuapan, Sn Matías Tlalancaleca, and finally Texmelucan, in that chronological order.

This report focuses on one of the last round trips, this one being made to the town of Sn Matías Tlalancaleca, distant 70 Km from the terminus La Paz. The ride started at 10:30, taking the usual route: the paid highway to Puebla. You can have a look at the photos of the climbing towards the Llano Grande summit (elev: 3220 m) at the photoset. Once I had reached that summit, I descended all the way towards Tlalancaleca, but with the big problem that the town is not located along the paid highway, both along free highway to Puebla instead !

I had to stop over the highway and cross it by foot :-( Being this highway a six-lane highway, this manoeuvre was a little bit dangerous ! Once on the other side of the highway, I crossed some fields, arriving at the town of Tlalancaleca.

This highly dangerous highway foot-crossing could have been avoided if I had rode over the free highway to Puebla, but as I was a beginner in the arts of road cycling, I used to avoid the free highways, mainly by the fear I felt of driving in the same lane as cars did. Nowadays, this fear has disappeared and I try to ride only in free highways (where available), since the side lane of the paid highways is always slower than the asphalt of the free highways ... and because usually, I find more towns and shops (to buy water and food) along the free highways than on the paid ones :-)

Once in Tlalancaleca, I headed towards in main Plaza, where I could appreciate its beautiful church, main square and municipal palace. In its main plaza I could eat some quesadillas. You can have a glimpse of the main Plaza and its beautiful buildings at the following photoset.

After finishing my photo session at that site, I leaved Tlalancaleca, heading then towards the paid highway, now in western direction, to Mexico City. I started this return ride at 17:30 at Km 80. As you can see, really late indeed ! I reached again the Llano Grande summit at 19:45, when the night was already onset. I was faced with the problematic situation of having to ride down that enormous descent of 1000 m to Mexico City under the absolute cover of the dark, or ... face the defeat (before me) of not being able to complete the whole ride in bicycle, once I was already in the summit, resting only that enormous descent of 1,000 m !

Was tun ? At 19:57 I decided to test my luck and started to ride downwards ... The freezing cold (it was still February, at 3200 m of elevation and at night) was overwhelming, I barely felt my hands. I guided myself only with the lights of the passing cars. I almost felt the abism that was at my right ... and I was still there, riding down at over 60 km/hr, under the darkness of the night, and with a freezing cold that had already rendered my hands sense-less ... Man, I sweared never attempting that nocturnal ride again !

Somehow I managed to reach the end of that 1000 m, 25 km long infernal nocturnal descent of Llano Grande to Mexico City, arriving at the toll collect station of Huixtoco at 20:57, above all: in one piece :-) I was so freezed that I had to stop there to warm me up a little so I could be able to feel my hands again ! The photos of those memorable moments are viewable at the photoset.

I had still to cycle another 15 Km under the cover of the dark, but the terrain was already plain, and more or less inside the city. I arrived at the La Paz sub-urban train terminal at 20:30, ending with this one of my most dangerous cycling rides that I have memory of.

Thank you for reading. Till the the next travel.