There is something quietly impressive about a chapel standing alone in the Chihuahuan desert. La Limpia was a hacienda in what is now the state of Durango, one of the big estates that organised life across northern Mexico from the seventeenth century onward. Haciendas were farms, ranches, sometimes mines and always small worlds, with owners, workers, a granary, stables and a chapel for religious life. Most have faded, and the chapel is often what survives when the rest has crumbled.
This one is listed as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the old silver road that ran from Mexico City north to Santa Fe. The Camino Real was a route for mule trains, wagons and travellers for three centuries, carrying silver, mercury, cloth, seeds and ideas. The haciendas along it supplied food and fodder and offered shelter. The chapel is a reminder that religion was part of the economic machine, because workers were baptised, married and buried here, and the owner's authority had spiritual cover.
You reach it across big empty country. The roads are long and often almost deserted, with scrub, cactus and low mountains at the edge of the horizon. Surfaces vary from decent asphalt to rough patches with potholes, and cattle drift across the road more often than you would like. Distances are long, so plan your fuel carefully: Rodeo, around thirteen kilometres away, is the nearest town with a few thousand people, and smaller places like Nogales and Coneto de Comonfort are sparser. Carry water, because there is none on the roadside.
Spring and autumn are the best seasons, when the heat is bearable and the light on the hills is clear. Summer afternoons are hot and sometimes end in storms, and winter nights can get cold. The silence at the chapel is genuine. It is the sort of place where the wind is the main sound, and where you can see a very long way. Have a drink, take a photo, and make sure your fuel plan is better than your sense of adventure.