Tecaltzingo + Texmelucan (Puebla), 25.03.07

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.


Photoset Map

Photoset Show

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

GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 204.25 Km, Total Ascent: 2238 m, Total Descent: 2229, Cycling Time: 8:38 hr, Paused Time: 0:55:27 hr, Avg. Speed: 23.4 Km/hr, Max Speed: 63.4 Km/hr, Energy Expended: 38.47 MJ, Cycling Power: 309.42 W.

Travel Report:

Wow ! At least a ride that starts at a moderately early hour ! I started to ride at 08:30 ! Well before my usual rides :-) As I had plenty of time, I decided to go to a town near Texmelucan (in the eastern state of Puebla), return in bike included :-)

The whole journey comprehend at least 200 Km, since only to arrive at Texmelucan 95 Km are required, along an ascent of at least 1000 m. At the end of the day, my GPS receivers recorded 204 Km and more than 2200 m of total ascent ! No wonder why my knees are aching a little today :-(

In order to arrive at my destination, I took the Zaragoza Av., and continued all the way along the paid highway to Puebla. I had decided to take the free highway, but somehow I missed the cross where I should had deviated to take the free highway to Puebla, instead of the paid one. The bifurcation between both of them is currently a mess, as some kind of traffic bypass is being constructed as we speak. As this cross is a gigantic traffic jam, I lost the junction and had to continue over the paid highway.

But when I arrived at Rio Frio, passing the Llano Grande summit (alt: 3200 m), I branched out of the paid highway, and merge myself with the free one ! This was my first time on this road ! I have cycled a lot of times along the paid one, and now it was time to know this new road to me. I can say that this road (the free one) on the side of Puebla is excellent. Good carpet conditions, and superb scenics. But on the side of Mexico State, it is much less exciting, as the asphalt carpet is abandoned, showing a lot of holes :-(

The target of my travel was a town called Tecaltzingo, 5 Km to the southwest of San Martín Texmelucan. San Buenaventura Tecaltzingo (complete name) houses, in its main square, in front of its church, five big stones with carved drawings, i.e. petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are usually associated with pre-historic cultures. They are considered to be a symbolic pre-writing communication system. The oldest petroglyphs are dated 10,000 - 12,000 years back. Being symbolic in nature, petroglyphs usually display some kind of animal figures (humans included).

The petroglyphs located in Tecaltzingo show in fact, antropo- and zoo-morph figures. I believe I could recognize the figures of a deer, a rabbit and a dog. Somehow I missed the human figures. But you can judge yourself in the following photoset. I do not have the exact date these petroglyphs were made, but they do certainly look pretty old to me. They are estimated to belong to the phase Cholula III (500 - 700 CE).

What really saddens my heart is viewing how some of those ancient petroglyphs have been vandalized, since two of them show drawings and labels painted on them :-( A propo, I forgot to mention that the church and atrium of this town are ... pintoresque, at least.

After paying my visit to Tecaltzingo, I returned to Texmelucan (main city in the region). I went to the center of this city, to have a look at its beautiful cathedral. Curiously, this one is of the only cathedral I have seen that allows the parking of autos inside its cathedral atrium ! The facade of this cathedral is really beautiful. It features a lot of lovely barroque reliefs.

The park in the center of Texmelucan houses a Hidalgo statue (Hidalgo is the funding father of Mexico), along a sympathetic kiosk adorned with talavera (blue ceramic).

Once I had finished my cultural excursion, only rested the last half of my trip: the return to Mexico City :-) I took the free highway for my return. I passed, on my way back to the Llano Grande summit: Tlalancaleca, Tlahuapan and Rio Frio. In Rio Frío I made a little stop to eat something (as I was starving) and to take some photos of its curious church.

I don't know why, but the maintenance of the church building in Rio Frio appears to be neglected, as its facade (and associated building) is literally falling in pieces :-( It is really a lovely church, but sadly, abandoned to the elements force ... and with no restoration.

After my visit to Rio Frio, I continued my way to the top of the summit: Llano Grande. When I was arriving there I took some photos of this new vista in front of me: Llano Grande as seen from the free highway. It is curious to see a summit from above, but I reckon that the free highway is a little higher at this point than the paid one.

From Llano Grande I started my descent using again the free highway. Man, this road is dangerous ! Bad asphalt carpet conditions and a lot of U-turns along the road (as the ones seen in the Tour de France). I should have taken photos of this U-turns along my descent in the highway, but my mind was so focused with the terrain and curves, that I forgot to stop and took some pictures. I hope next time, during my climbing up of this road, I could be able to stop and take some photos of those multiple U-turns that I hadn't see before in my previous ridings. I swear that they look just like the U-turns in the climbings of the Tour de France !

At the end of the steep descent (from 3200 m to 2250 m) I entered in Ixtapaluca, a metropolitan town with a lot of people, traffic jams and little organized traffic :-( On my way back home I cycled the avenue that crosses all Ixtapaluca, entering later in the Zaragoza avenue, that took me straight to the center of Mexico City, just aside from our House of Congress. A couple of kilometers later I was safe at home :-)

Thank you for reading. Till the next travel.

Cuauhnahuac Museum, Cuernavaca (Morelos), 11.03.07

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.

Photoset Map

Photosset Show

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

GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 82 Km. Climb: 1064 m. Time: 3:06 hr, Average Speed: 26.2 Km/hr, Energy expended: 15.52 MJ, Cycling Power: 347 W

Travel Report:

This ride started at 10:30. I took the free highway to Cuernavaca and reached the Cuauhnáhuac Museum, in the center of Cuernavaca (Morelos state capital) at 13:10. Once there I proceeded to enjoy a detailed (and photographic) visit to this incredible Museum.

The Cuauhnáhuac Museum is housed in the oldest civil building in the whole country, with more than 450 years of existence. Another peculiarity is that there are three buildings built on the same site, one atop the other. First the Tlatlocayacalli temple, built by the indigenous Tlahuica people. Then came the Aztec conquest, which built the Cuauhnáhuac temple, over the Tlahuica building. Finally came the spanish conquest, which built the Cortés Palace (spanish conqueror Cortés residence), over the Aztec temple.

In the first room of this museum there are exhibited the bones of some prehistoric animals and also some obsidian prehistoric tools. In the following rooms are displayed a lot of pottery artifacts and ceremonial figures.

In the exhibitions are also presented stone buildings, as a Ball Game, religious statues, stellas, petroglyphs, sculptures, sacrificial offerings, paintings and even some Codex strips.

In the upper floor the murals painted by the famed muralist painter Diego Rivera can be appreciated. They are beautiful :-)

I think that all the Cuauhnáhuac museum riches can be best seen than talked, so I would kindly invite you to see them in the photos (and associated descriptions) lovely taken this time, at the following:

Photoset

On my way back to Mexico City, when I was reaching the Zapata Monument in order to take the free highway to Mexico, I decided that it was too late to attempt to return by bike, as it was almost 17:00 (I had taken a lot of time to visit the Museum !), so I aborted my cycling ride at that position and instead took a bus to Mexico :-(

(If you would be interested in a round Mexico City - Cuernavaca Center - Mexico City cycling ride, please have a look at my last week ride)

Thank you for reading :-)

Cuernavaca Center (Morelos), 04.03.07

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.


Images

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

GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 153 Km. Climb: 2600 m. Time: 6:14 hr, Average Speed: 24.57 Km/hr, Energy expended: 32.84 MJ, Cycling Power: 366 W

Travel Report:

This ride started at 10:30 (really late). The special feature about this experimental ride is that I was carrying no more than the cycling essentials (a new tube, the pump and tools to extract a tube), as I was trying to take the time required to make this ride to Cuernavaca, both ways on bike (going to the center of Cuernavaca (Cortes Palace) and _returning_ to Mexico City on the bike).

So this time I left back at home: my digital camera, my trusted Garmin 60 CSx GPS receiver, 6 AA batteries (2 of backup), my camera tripod, the hiking bag where I use to carry my electronics, a triple-sensored watch, the jacket and alternate shoes (for places where I can not walk with my carbon SPD cycling shoes), the handle-bars bag where I carry the jacket and shoes ... Ufff, a lot of stuff !

As you can see, I was riding really light :-) And this arrangement really paid off: I required only a little more than six hours to make the whole route ! From the center of Mexico City to the center of Cuernavaca, cycling return included ! As you can see: this route is 153 Km long, with a climbing of 2700 m. Nothing bad :-) But I had several problems with this experimental ensemble:

1. I couldn't take photos (as I wasn't carrying a decent digital camera)
2. My GPS track altimetry is not as precise as I am accustomed (as I was carrying only the wrist-watch Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS receiver, and not the de facto outdoor standard Garmin GPSMAP 60 CSx [Garmin dixit])
3. I couldn't visit the upper floor of the Cuauhnahuac Museum in the center of Cuernavaca (as my carbon sole and plaques of my SPD shoes were too hard to the recently re-newed wooden floor, or at least that was stated by the museum security) in order to admire the murals of Diego Rivera.
   

Of course, once I had re-made this route, these nuisances will be no more of concern, but now, I have to address these problems. How ? Re-making the route with at least the digital camera, the Garmin 60 CSx GPS receiver, required batteries, tripod, and some sort of disposable ultra-light shoes for the wooden floor of the museum, i.e. a couple of plastic bags :-)

So, here are the partial times of this experimental ride:

• Mexico City Center - Cuernavaca Center: 2:38 hr
  
• Cuernavaca Center - Zapata Monument: 0:23 hr
  
• Zapata Monument - Tres Marias: 1:32 hr
  
• Tres Marías - Parres: 0:37 hr
  
• Parres - Mexico City Center: 1:03 hr
  

Of course, I won't be able to replicate those times once I am again fully loaded with the electronic equipment, but anyway, it was fun taking those times. Farewell to them :-)

Now, let's go back to the Cuauhnáhuac Museum (target of the travel), located in the center of Cuernavaca. This museum is housed in the oldest civil building in all Mexico, with more than 450 years in existence ! This building was constructed over an even older Aztec temple (the Cuauhnahuac), which in turn, was also built over an even older Tlahuica temple: the Tlatlocayacalli !

I mean: this place has three buildings, one built over the other: first the Tlahuica temple (Tlatlocayacalli, erected by the original natives), the came the Aztec conquest of this territory and built the second (Cuauhnahuac) temple, over the Tlahuica one. Then came the Spanish conquest, which built the Cortés Palace, over the Aztec Temple, as we can see it nowdays. A hell of conquests, isn't it ?

This building is also known as the Cortes Palace, because it was the selected place of residence of Hernán Cortés (spanish conqueror of the Aztec empire), after he moved from Mexico City, in order to take hands on his then newly given (by the spanish crown) Marquesado (little kingdom).

The Cuauhnahuac Museum houses an impressive collection of archaeological findings, from pre-historical times, recovered from the whole Tlahuica culture (Morelos native people), as stone monuments, paintings, pottery artifacts, even mammoth bones ! On the second floor I was told there are exhibited the murals of Diego Rivera, but as I can not step on the wooden surface of the floor, I am unable to talk about them :-(

I will soon (hopefully next week) remake this route, taking into account my previous problems, so I will be able to give you a detailed (and photographic) account of the Cuauhnahuac Museum riches. Stay tuned :-)

Images (of the Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS track) ? In the link above. Thank you for reading.