In the middle of the eighteenth century, a group of Franciscan friars led by Junipero Serra, later famous for his missions in California, set about building five churches in the Sierra Gorda of Queretaro, one of the roughest, most remote parts of central Mexico. The mission of San Francisco del Valle de Tilaco is one of the five, along with Jalpan, Landa, Concá and Tancoyol, and together they were inscribed as World Heritage in 2003 as the Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda. The church at Tilaco stands in a small village, and its facade is covered with stucco decoration in a style that mixes European baroque with local imagery, with saints, flowers, and symbols that might have been designed by the indigenous workers who built it.
The Sierra Gorda is a surprising landscape. It lies at the northeast edge of Queretaro state, where the mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental fall away towards the Gulf of Mexico, and in a few kilometres you pass from dry scrub to cloud forest, oak woods and tropical canyons. The area is a biosphere reserve, home to jaguars, ocelots, parrots and over a hundred species of butterfly, and it is one of the most biodiverse parts of central Mexico. In the missions, locals still keep up a calendar of fiestas, and the plaza in front of each church is the centre of village life.
Riding here is serious fun. The roads from Queretaro to the Sierra Gorda, notably Highway 120 through Jalpan, are twisting mountain roads with endless bends, steep climbs, sudden drops and wonderful views, and the surface is generally good but with patches of loose stone and occasional landslides after heavy rain. Traffic is light, but trucks and buses take the middle of the road on blind corners, and cattle may wander. Late autumn and spring offer clear weather, while the summer rains bring mist and slippery surfaces. The route is a big and rewarding day out.
Tilaco is a small village, and nearby Agua Zarca and Landa de Matamoros each have only a thousand or two people, so supplies are modest. Jalpan, the main town of the mission circuit, is the place for fuel, food and a bed, and it is wise to fill up there before heading out on the smaller roads. Try the local zacahuil, a giant tamal, and the strong coffee that grows in the hills.