October 30, 2006

La Marquesa (Mexico), 29.10.06


Map Navigation: This dynamic Trackmap shows the GPS track (red line) and some geo-referenced photos (red dots) of the cycling tour. Wheel up and wheel down your mouse to zoom in or zoom out the map. Click on any point in the map to center it on that point. Or just drag the map with your mouse. To see the photos, hoover the mouse over the red dots. Click on the photo to go to the picture page.


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Distance: 66 Km, Ascent: 1075 m, Time: 2:57 hr, Avg. Speed: 22.5 Km/hr, Max. Speed: 69.2 Km/hr.

Travel Report:


This cycling touring was almost avoided, because the author had to sort some messy things on Sundays morning. So, it wasn't until past 15:00 hrs when I had time to start this ride. I asked myself: where in hell could i ride at this hour ? And my private daemon answered: "Let's go to La Marquesa, after all, it is only a 2 hours ride, with an acceptable ascent, and we have still sunlight". Well ... i decided to follow his advice and started to ride to Constituyentes, the main avenue that guide us directly to the free Highway to Toluca (the other one is Reforma, but it is slower as it has a lot of turns. Constituyentes, on the other hand, gets you straight to the free highway, albeit with a little more pain).

The weather was excellent at this time, no hard sun, no rain, little wind. This route is an old friend of us, so: no big surprises. Just that as we were ascending, the air became chilly (last night was really cold in town). There was a lot of traffic on the road this time, not surprisingly for the hour. A lot of pick-ups and double trailer trucks :-( I had to manage to ride over the extreme right side white line in order to avoid any chance of being touched by these double carrier trucks. That made me promise to start to ride earlier next Sunday :-).

After 1:45 hr of riding we arrived at the summit: Tres Cruces, with an altitude of 3160 m. I took a couple of photos an started the descent to La Marquesa, 170 m down the other side of the hill. Man, it was cold the descent (but nothing compared with the cold we must deal with at our return to the city). Arrived at La Marquesa at 17:42, took another couple of pictures and start the return, with a moderate ascent of those 170 m in order to arrive again to the summit. There was still sunshine. But night was looming ... and our descent of almost 1,000 m to Mexico City had to start, so we must hurry on.

Occupied in watching carefully the road in the descent, I did not realized at what time there was no more solar light. In fact, there was a car jamming on the highway to the city, so a couple of times i had to ride on the left lane of the highway, in order to overcome to jammed cars of the slow lane. That was adrenaline ! Overcoming jammed two-carriers trucks by the left (high speed) lane in the highway ! But after those precious moments, we have to maintain us focused in order to avoid the potential holes in the middle of the lane, hardly visible at this hour. A police car even protect me in the final stages of the descent (near the Reforma-Constituyentes junction), going back of me at my speed and with its light on ! I had to thank those guys :-)

When I arrived at Constituyentes, there was no more light at all, but there was _another_ big car jam :-) so it was no difficult passing by the slow lane, between cars in order to avoid being stopped. Continuing our descent (that now seemed endless), we finally arrived at Circuito Interior, where civilization starts :-). After here, we took Alvaro Obregon (Roma), where the author had the closest contact with the Death that we have memory ! After that, we simply decided to go home :-)

Thank you for reading. Till the next journey. [Caveat: Do not try this at home]

October 23, 2006

Teopanzolco Archaeological Site (Morelos), 22.10.06


Map Navigation: This dynamic Trackmap shows the GPS track (red line) and some geo-referenced photos (red dots) of the cycling tour. Drag the map with your mouse. To see the photos, click your mouse over the little red dots. Click on the photos to go to the picture page.


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Distance: 90 Km, Ascent: 938 m, Time: 3:41 hr, Avg. Speed: 24.1 Km/hr, Max. Speed: 59.6 Km/hr.


Travel Report:


Against all author's wishes, this cycling tour started again late (around 12:30). Due to this late hour, it was decided to rode to the Archaeological site of Teopanzolco, in the city of Cuernavaca. We took Tlalpan all the way south, in order to get out of the city. But before reaching the Aztec Stadium, there was a traffic cut on Tlalpan. The reason for this traffic cut was a religious festival in the urban town of Santa Ursula, inside Mexico City. We could observe a beautiful flower carpet in front of the Church of Santa Ursula, and also the Chinelos, some disguised dancers, whose origins and identity can be traced back to Morelos ! What is interesting to me is how a tradition of the neighbour state of Morelos is firmly rooted in a urban town inside Mexico City. Well, after passing this festival, we continue our tour to the south to the free highway to Cuernavaca, reaching the town of San Pedro Martir, and at a height of 2,700 m, we reached the Restaurant El Mirador, where there is a sightseeing point that covers all the Mexico City Valley. We continue our ascent to the town of Parres (3,000 m), last town in the Federal District, just a stone throw of the border with the southern state of Morelos.

We reached the summit, named La Cima (for a meteo station, Km 44) at 3,050 m after 2 hours of riding. Here we could observe (and photograph) a curious guy, who lied down in this spot, observing with a broad smile all the traffic between the cities of Cuernavaca and Mexico. Great way to amuse yourself in this high spot ! Descending now, we arrived at the town of Tres Marias (2800 m), a touristic attraction famed by its cuisine. We continue our descent to Cuernavaca, arriving at the Zapata, an equestrian statue in the entrance of Cuernavaca of this famed revolutionary of the past century. After this point, we took the paid highway to Acapulco, in order to avoid the burden of riding across the city. When we arrived at a big commercial house (Liverpool), we took to the right in order to arrive at the Archaeological Site of Teopanzolco, no without loosing our way for some minutes (regretfully, descending more than was required).

At the site, we could observe the twin temples of Tláloc (rain god) and Huizilopochtli (war god), also with a group of minor temples. There was also a pyramid at the back of the twin temples. We took some photographs of this temples, and would like to pass more time in this place, but the rain had decided otherwise. We waited for the end of the rain until the closure time of the site (17:30) and we took our way to the center of Cuernavaca.

Happily, there was the Cervantine Festival ongoing in the main square of the city. This Festival is a cultural one that shows for free a lot of cultural expressions, including but not limiting to music, dance, theater, etc. This Cervantine festival of Cuernavaca runs for all this week and this edition is dedicated to Japan ! I roamed through this Festival, went to visist the Cuauhnahuac Museum, the Cathedral and the Borda Garden, where there was starting a free Theater function called: "A really lively Death", in reference to the coming Deaths Day in México. It was really a pleasure having been able to assist to this free theater function, because it was very enjoyable. After that, I took the return bus to Mexico City and later the subway back home. Another line to the tiger ;-)

Thank you for reading. Till the next journey !

October 16, 2006

Parres (DF), 15.10.06


Map Navigation: This dynamic Trackmap shows the GPS track (red line) and some geo-referenced photos (red dots) of the cycling tour. Drag the map with your mouse. To see the photos, click your mouse over the little red dots. Click on the photos to go to the picture page.


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GPS Cycling Data:







Distance: 82.4 Km, Ascent: 824 m, Time: 4:45 hr, Avg. Speed: 17.28 Km/hr, Max. Speed: 62 Km/hr.


Travel Report:

This ride was intended to arrive to Cuernavaca, capital city of the neighbouring southern state of Morelos, but the weather conditions of that day proved otherwise. After taking Tlalpan and later the free highway to Cuernavaca, the weather started to change to a rainy one. In fact, when I passed to a restaurant called "El Mirador", a sightseeing point located 500 m above Mexico City valley level, I could capture the image of a beautiful double rainbow over the city ! But above this point (2700 m), rain started :-(

At the beginning of the rain, I supposed I could cope with the rain as long as it occurred in the climbing part of the ride, but soon the rain started to acquire bigger dimensions. When I was approaching Parres (last town in the Federal District of Mexico City), the rain was so intense that visibility was null at 5 m ! All my body now ached by the cold. Particularly, my knees were hurting so bad, I had to change of mind about the destination of the ride. Firstly I decided to arrive to Tres Marías, but after seeing the rain intensity, and feeling the cold associated pain in the knees, when I arrived at Parres I decided that enough was enough.

So at my arrival at Parres (with a 5 m visibility owed to the rain) I decided to cut short that ride at this point and took a bus to return to Mexico City, as this was a descent of 800 m that I could not ride under that strong rain and poor visibility conditions. So I took a bus that took me to the Aztec Stadium, from where I rode back to my house. It was certainly not the most glamorous cycling ride in my life, but I had to protect myself :-)

Before arriving to my house I passed to the Zocalo (Main Square of Mexico City) where I could capture some images of Aztecs dancing and offering their prayers to their gods :-)

Thank you for reading. Till the next travel.

October 10, 2006

Xochicalco Archaeological Site + Cuernavaca (Morelos), 08.10.06


Map Navigation: This dynamic Trackmap shows the GPS track (red line) and some geo-referenced photos (red dots) of the cycling tour. Drag the map with your mouse. To see the photos, click your mouse over the little red dots. Click on the photos to go to the picture page.


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GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 150 Km, Ascent: 1760 m, Time: 6:29 hr, Avg. Speed: 23.2 Km/hr, Max. Speed: 62.7 Km/hr.


Travel Report:


This journey was started by the author in Mexico City (2,240 m alt) at 12:20, a relatively late hour. But anyway, it is always a pain in the neck getting up early on Sundays ... The route we took was Tlalpan to the south, and later, the Free Highway to Cuernavaca. The plain terrain lasts about 15 Km (it was a little boring), but once the ascent starts, things got funny. The initial part of the ascent is the most demanding: But the traffic on the highway was smooth. The landscapes in this time of the year are beautiful, since the rain season has made all the hills greener and the tree foliage denser.

At 2,700 m elevation, we arrived at the Restaurant El MIrador, a place with a beautiful vista of the Mexico City Valley. Unfortunately, this vista was obstructed by a dense smog layer that impeded us from having a clear view of our valley, sorry. After taking some pictures, we continued the ascent to the summit, named La Cima (for a weather station in the surroundings), reaching it at 3,025 m, after 2 hours of cycling. This summit is nearly unimposing, because there is no clear indication where the peak is, so lets say that the Km 44 would mark the summit.

Descent starts and nothing could stop us before reaching the Zapata, in the entrance of Cuernavaca. This Zapata is an equestrian statue of the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, who fought (among others) Porfirio Díaz, the perennial president of the Mexican republic between 1876 and 1911. Zapata's motto was: "Land and Freedom". He is also quoted as stating: "The land belongs to those who work it". After taking some picture of his statue, i took the Toll Highway in order to avoid the bulk of Cuernavaca, preferring giving a big bypass to this city.

We took the road to Temixco, and Villa de las Flores, because I have planned the route to the archaeological site at Xochicalco going through the way to the airport and Tematla, preferring this route to the classical route to Alpuyeca first and then to Xochicalco. Now, I am not sure if this was the best approach. After a town named Acatlipa, we took the road to the airport, and then to Tetlama. This way was really hilly. Just ups and downs between hills and rivers. But heck, what else could i do but continue cycling ? At the end i arrived at Tetlama, a curious town in the middle of nowhere and at the top of a mountain. The cattle (big cebus) roamed here freely on the highway! I have never had to pass so near from a big cebu (1 m, and in a bike) so it was frightening to me, but somehow i managed to declare myself harmless to the big cebu that was standing in the middle of the road, so I could pass with no problem at all :-). At the end of Tetlama there is a road that took me straight to the archaeological site of Xochicalco.

I visited the museum and the entrance to the pyramids, but i could not continue further because i had arrived 20 minutes later than the last entry allowed hour. So, again, i took some photos of the place and decided to continue ahead the return tour to Cuernavaca. Taking now another path, this time I decided to go back to Cuernavaca using the road to Xochicalco and Alpuyeca. This one is a beautiful descent (300 m descent) with a highway in previous conditions. In the exit of Alpuyeca we stopped for some food (as i was starting to feel hungry). Alpuyeca has an elevation of 1,050 m, so we need some calories before we made the following ascent to Cuernavaca (at 1,550 m). The good news were that for this 500 m ascent we needed to ride 20 Km, so the slope would be only of 2.5 %. Certainly, something needed after 125 km and more than 1,500 m of gain ascent. Bad news was that again, we were losing solar light. The night loomed and it would be dark before we could arrive at Cuernavaca. But, what the heck, this wouldn't be our first (or last) ride in the night: alone and with no lights ...

This last leg of our journey was a little tricky, because there was a lot of traffic in Temixco, so i needed to bypass the cars using the middle "lane" (between both directions), but after Temixco, there was no more car jam. Our arrival at Cuernavaca was at 21:00 hrs, just in time to take some nocturnal photos of the Cuauhnahuac Museum in the center of the city. I proceed later to the Pullman Bus Terminal in order to take my bus back to Mexico City, arriving at 23:30. I could even manage to take the subway in order to be comfortably at home at 00:00 :-)

Thank you for reading. Till the next journey.

October 05, 2006

Malinalco Archaeological Site + Chalma (Mexico), 01.10.06



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GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 110 Km. Ascent: 1560 m. Time: 5:22 hr, Avg. Speed: 20.8 Km/hr, Max. Speed: 58.4 Km/hr


Travel Report:

I started this tour at 12:30 (local time), a little bit late, but anyway, I had thought this journey would be an easy one. Things got mixed on the way. The ascent to Tres Cruces was a routine ascent of one thousand meters. No problems here so far, having employed 1:45 hr to perform this fist leg of the journey. Problems start arising at Tres Cruces, because after i had passed this summit (ca 3,200 m), a strong and cold rain fell all the way. Obviously the descent to La Marquesa is a dangerous one under rainy conditions, but there was no way to avoid it. It didn't seem as if the rain would last just a few minutes, so i decided to descent very carefully.

After La Marquesa I started the second ascent, with the advantage that the rain had now just a medium intensity. Finally, after the Conejo Valley, rain stopped. Then we started a rapid descent that would take us to the first town in the area of the Toluca Valley: Texcalyacac. Here, in Texcalyacac I had to stop because (maybe caused for the cold and rain) I had a tremendous hunger, and I was starting to fell tired. So in this town we looked for some place where to eat, and finally found a spot where big roasted chicken were being sold. After devouring one, i continued this travel.

Next town is Techuchulco, another quiet town in our path. After Techuchulco the last strong ascent awaited for our tired legs. The last hills before Joquincingo represented a 200 m ascent, but with a 5 % slope, and after 1,250 m of total ascent. I can still remember how I was strongly breathing in order to maintain a certain pace in this ascent. After finally reaching this summit, Joquincingo was in sight. After Joquiningo, started now a strong and continuous descent that would take us straight to Malinalco (we descent 1,100 m in this slope). No big problems in this stage :-)

The exit road to Malinalco is paved with river stones (I have a great dislike for stone paved streets), so the driving now had to be very careful in order no to visit the ants. After arriving at Malinalco main square, we went to the Arqueological Site. Unaffortunately, I had arrived 1 hour later than the last allowed entry, so we could only took a couple of photos at the site's entrance. We returned to the main square, where we could take some shots of the Augustine Convent (and also from the running mass inside). I liked a lot the cross in the atrium of the convent, because to me it looked old and loaded with symbolism.

But it was time to head to Chalma. At about 19:30 we left the town in order to head for this mythic and religious town, destination for numerous pilgrimages. It is only a 10 km ride, but i was too late, and half of this leg of the journey had to be rode without solar light. When i arrived at Chalma, it was almost 20:00 with no light. But at least i had reached my final destination :-)

Problem was: the last Mexico bus had departed 1 hour ago (when i was taking photos back at Malinalco). Next bus runs at 03:30. What the hell. I went to the market to make some calls back home to my wife (in order to prevent hell unleashing) and decided to wait in the bus station. Heck, it was my fault i did not arrive in time, so, i was not going to give me a prize staying in a hotel. No way sir. So i returned to the bus station. But, good news ! I was not alone. there were other pilgrims there :-) We talked for hours, and as the weather favoured us (dry, 25 C) we could wait talking until almost 02:00. After a little more waiting, our return bus appeared and i got my home ticket. Bus arrived in Mexico City at 05:45, resting only a shot ride to my house in order to be home again :-) Uffff, that was really an adventurous Sunday !

Thank you for reading. Till the next journey.