21st – Zacapú to Quiroga, 47 km,
Still on hwy 15, half day uphill, half day downhill, nice pine forests around and not too much traffic.
22nd – Quiroga to Morelia – Irapeo, 56 km,
Again half day up and then amazing downhill ride to Morelia, little traffic, close to Morelia the road began to be more crowded. More hills waited for us after Morelia.
23rd – Irapeo to somewhere in the middle of hills between Morelia and Ciudad Hidalgo, 27.49 km,
Whole day climbing up the hills, the road was steep, narrow, curvy and with steep slopes above and below us, but with almost no traffic.
24th – from the hills to Huajúmbaro, 34.29 km,
For a while we kept pedaling uphill, fortunately not very steep. We were surprised to find our elevation to be about 2,900 m. Then nice but cold downhill ride for the rest of the day(some 20 km), unfortunately the road was quite in bad shape.
25th – from Huajúmbaro to San Pedro Jácuaro, 26.6 km,
Another perfect downhill ride almost to Ciudad Hidalgo, short conversation with locals convinced us to visit Los Azufres, so we went to San Pedro Jácuaro and started climbing up to Los Azufres
26th – San Pedro Jácuaro to Los Azufres, 25.04 km,
Almost 20 km long climb from 2,100 to more than 2,800 m above the sea level. The road was pretty steep and not in the best condition, with only a few places to stop and catch a breath, but luckily with very little traffic.
27th – Los Azufres to San Pedro Jácuaro, 12.87 km,
The same road as yesterday, but in opposite direction, we enjoyed the evening downhill ride in spite of bad quality of the road.
28th - San Pedro Jácuaro – Aporo, 38.44 km,
Downhill ride to Ciudad Hidalgo, where we left hwy #15 and climbed up very steep but short hill. The road to Aporo was nice and with little traffic and without steep hills.
29th – Aporo to El Rosario (or San José?), 28.57 km,
The road to Ocampo was fine if not for too many topes (speed bumps). From Ocampo up to Sanctuary of Monarch Butterflies we experienced our steepest hill we had ever ridden by a bicycle (or pushed the bicycle up), with many curves and quite a lot of cars.
30th – El Rosario to Angangueo, 10.82 km,
Road down to Angangueo was very bad, made from rocks cemented together, super-steep and absolutely not bike-friendly.
31st – Angangueo to Sierra Chincua, 6.78 km,
Another crazy hill up to elevation of about 3,100 m, the first part from Angangueo to first serpentines was the most difficult, the road was straight and very very steep. The last two kilometers to Monarch Sanctuary was on the dirt road. Only a little traffic.
January:
1st – Sierra Chincua to San José de Rincón, 25.69 km,
Nice downhill ride to the lowlands (well, still in the elevation of 2,600 m). The main road was very narrow, in bad quality and quite busy.
2nd – San José de Rincón to Villa Victoria, 34.65 km,
We rode through many small hills with short uphill and downhill rides, with farm fields with the spread habitations all around us. At the end of the day we came back to hwy #15 which was very busy but with nice shoulder.
3rd – Villa Victoria to Toluca, 44.95 km,
Cycling below the volcano Nevado de Toluca, mainly through farmlands, hwy #15 was very busy there, but entering Toluca was without problems. 4 to
7th – Exploring Toluca and finding some nice bike trails there, 25.32 km.
8th – Toluca to Xalatlaco, 45.07 km,
We started climbing the mountains between Toluca and Mexico City to volcano Ajusco. From Toluca we rode mostly downhill on main roads with heavy traffic, to Xalatlaco uphill on quite good road with not much traffic on it. The real climb started after Xalatlaco and was pretty steep, luckily almost without any traffic.
9th – Xalatlaco to San Miguel Ajusco, 32.97 km,
Climbing to the mountain saddle in elevation of 3,600 m. The road lead us through pine forests and pastures with sheep, lthe slope was pretty steep in the beginning, but later it was fine and we really enjoyed it. Perfect downhill ride to the saddle under volcano Ajusco with no traffic at all was disturbed only by topes (speed bumps) built with no reason there... The rest of downhill ride to San Miguel Ajusco was also very nice, through pine forests and with views of Cumbres de Ajusco. San Miguel Ajusco is built on the top of very steep hill with view of Mexico City far down below. The roads there were narrow and pretty steep. We found a bike trail leading to Mexico City.
10th - San Miguel Ajusco – Ayapango, 52.42 km,
Super-steep descent to the outskirts of Mexico City, we were cycling whole day through once small villages, now creating one huge agglomeration. The biggest trouble of the day were topes, we counted 309 of them today (which means one per every 169 m)! and buses stooping and blocking the whole traffic every couple of meters.
11th – Ayapango to Paso de Cortez, 36.05 km,
We reached the elevation of 3,700 m which was our record so far. From village Amecameca it was about 25 km uphill, quality of the road was good and even though the climb was very steep, it looked easy compared to the climb to Monarch Sanctuary :-); the road was busy because it was Sunday.
12th – Paso de Cortez to , 18.7 km,
Whole day on a dirt road, only a few kilometers at the end of the day before were on asphalt, but we enjoyed it anyway because of the nice pine forests and no traffic.
13th - to Puebla, 42.1 km,
Mostly downhill ride through farmlands with amazing views of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, on good and not very busy roads to Cholula, then in city traffic to our warmshovers host's place.
14th - 20th visiting Mexico City, no biking
21st – Puebla to Cuautinchán, 30.38 km,
To get out of Puebla wasn't very difficult but the exhaust fumes from cars almost killed us. Otherwise the road was easy with only small hills, with farmlands and pastures around. Character of the land is quite arid, it looks like we are in the desert again.
22nd – Cuautinchán to Tecamachalco, 42.48 km,
The first part of the day was something like dream of all cyclists, mostly downhill on a good road with very little traffic, through arid farmlands to Tepeaca. From Tepeaca to Tecamachalco we rode on the road #150, very busy road but with shoulder. Mostly downhill, (especially after Tepeaca), if not for topes it would be very nice ride. Very soon after Tepeaca the view of volcano Orizaba opened. From Tecamachalco we rode on the road #714. The city was very busy, full of cars and their exhaust fumes. The reward, after we climbed a small hill from downtown of Tecamachalco, was beautiful view of volcano Orizaba in the evening light.
23rd – Tecamachalco to Azumbilla, 55.45 km,
On the road #714 to Caňada de Morelos then to Azumbilla and on the road #150 to Caňón de Rio Blanco. To Caňada de Morelos we were biking mostly downhill, with one bigger hill before and after Caňada de Morelos. Nice downhill ride to Azumbilla, but in very cold fog. Before Caňada de Morelos there were farmlands all around; around Azumbilla there was mostly desert.
24th – Azumbilla to Orizaba, 48.12 km,
Fog, fog, fog and curved road. Super-steep downhill ride with super-sharp curves and traffic changing its organisation in every curve (traffic from the left lane had to go to the right lane and vice versa). Very cold and very wet day.
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