Cholula Archaeological Site + Puebla (Puebla), 19.11.06

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

GPS Cycling Data:






Distance: 140 Km, Ascent: 1173 m, Time: 5:20 hr, Avg. Speed: 23.9 Km/hr, Max. Speed: 66 Km/hr.

Travel Report:

This ride was performed under rain for the most part of the journey. In fact, the rain started when we were leaving Mexico City, and did not not stop until our arrive again to the city ! But anyway, it was a beautiful ride, made to visit and know the stunning underground Great Pyramid of Cholula (Puebla). We have intended to take the free highway to Puebla, but somehow in the middle of the ride, we lose our path and had no alternative but to take the paid highway.

There were no many cyclists on the road, only a pilgrimage to San Miguel (I must thank them for its delicious free tostada that they gave me to eat _over_ the bike). On our ascent to Llano Grande (+3200 m) the body generated heat was able to keep us warm, but at our arrival to the summit, it was damn freezing ! We ate some snacks and started the descent to Texmelucan. This was real cold. Temperature was 5 C + raining ! Even in this weather we managed to reach speeds over 65 km/hr. Arriving to Texmelucan, we left the paid highway, taking now our way to the free highway to Puebla. On the road we passed by the town of Huejotzingo, where we could observe some chinelos dancing on the main square (i think we are in festival mood).

Half an hour later we could finally arrive at Cholula, where the rain made us had a hard time finding a place to leave our bicycles. After eating some exquisite tacos + quesadillas in the local market, we could enter the Archaeological Site and its underground Great Pyramid. You can judge by the photos that this is an experience of its own kind. There are even corridors inside the pyramid that lead to God knows where, as they are closed by the site administration. There are a lot of niche-like pathways that lose itself into the darkness. After taking some shots, we leave this magical place.

We decided to climb up our way to the church of Los Remedios, built on the top of the hill that hides the pyramid (this was a tricky part due to my carbon cycling shoes). The rain made this little ascent a though one. But finally, at the top waited for us a beautiful vista of the Cholula and Puebla valleys. After briefly taking shelter in the church, we started our return to the bikes. But meanwhile, Luis decided to have a look to the surrounding pyramids, so I waited for him where we leave our bikes.

Lastly, only the final leg of our journey (12 km) remained between us and our final destination. At our arrival to the CAPU (central bus station of Puebla) we purchased our return tickets (90 pesos by ADO) and patiently awaited 15 minutes for our home bus :-)

Thank you for reading. Till the next journey.

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

GPS Cycling Data:








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]

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

GPS Cycling Data:







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 !