Indé is a small town in northern Durango, and the chapel of San Mateo belonged to a hacienda that supplied the silver road. The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro ran for about 2,600 kilometres from Mexico City to Santa Fe, and this stretch crossed some of the driest country on the way. Around here the landscape is bajada and basin, with mesquite, huisache and prickly pear on the plains and dark mountain ranges in the distance. Rainfall is low, and the wells and springs that haciendas depended on decided where people could live.
The chapel is a modest building, and that is part of its appeal. These haciendas were built with local stone and adobe, and the chapels often had a bell gable instead of a tower, thick walls to keep out the heat, and a plain interior. The settlement around them was part farm, part village. The Camino Real was never a single highway but a network of routes, and its protection by presidios, small garrisons, was important because the north was contested ground.
There is no sizeable town close by, so treat this as remote country. Roads here can be long and quiet, and you may go an hour without seeing another vehicle. That is a pleasure on a motorbike when the surface is good, but it also means that if you break down you may wait. Carry water, a spare tube or repair kit, a charged phone and a paper map or offline map. Fuel stations in northern Mexico are sparse compared to Europe, and it is worth topping up whenever you pass one.
The weather decides the rest. In summer it is very hot, and afternoon storms can come in fast. In winter mornings are cold and the air is clean and clear. The best time to ride is spring or autumn, early in the day. Look for birds of prey on the telegraph poles, and for roadrunners if you are lucky. This is a place for slowing down and looking at the old walls, then getting on with the road.