CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Rancho de Guadalupe it runs 473 km to Rancho de Guadalupe; allow about 8 h 00 of riding. It goes by way of Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M, Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco, Bridge of El Fraile and Chapel of the former hacienda of Buenavist. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The silver of Guanajuato came with a price, and the price was a war. In the middle of the sixteenth century, as the Spanish pushed north and the roads began to carry wagons of ore, the Chichimeca peoples of this high plateau resisted, and for several decades attacks on convoys made the journey dangerous. The Spanish answered with forts, called presidios, along the road, and with settlements of Indian allies, and the old road, the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, grew up as a fortified corridor.
Read the complete Bridge La Quemada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bridge La Quemada is where the day begins. Next is Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M.
Guanajuato is a town that has been dug into, built over and tunnelled through, and it has a character all of its own. It sits in a narrow canyon in the highlands of central Mexico, and the silver mines that made it rich lie in the hills around it. In the eighteenth century the Valenciana mine was among the richest in the world, and the profits built grand churches, theatres and mansions, all painted in bright colours and packed into steep, winding streets. UNESCO listed the town and its mines in 1988.
Read the complete Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M comes up about 85 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco.
From the outside, the Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco is plain: thick whitewashed walls, a modest bell tower, a dusty plaza in a small village on the dry plateau of Guanajuato. Step inside and every surface erupts in colour. The church was founded in the eighteenth century by the priest Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro as a place of penitence and spiritual retreat, and its walls and ceilings were covered over decades with murals by the painter Miguel Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre, full of saints, angels, Biblical scenes and verses. People call it the Sistine Chapel of Mexico, and the comparison is less exaggerated than it sounds. It is listed by UNESCO together with the nearby town of San Miguel de Allende.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 169 km into the recorded legs you reach Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco. Next is Bridge of El Fraile.
Atotonilco is a small village in the hills outside San Miguel de Allende, and its sanctuary is sometimes called the Sistine Chapel of Mexico. The church was founded in the eighteenth century and covered, inside, with extraordinary baroque paintings by a local artist, who filled the walls and ceilings with scenes of the Passion, saints and symbols in a dense, theatrical style. It is still an active place of pilgrimage, and many people walk here from San Miguel, especially during Lent, in a tradition that goes back centuries.
Read the complete Bridge of El Fraile write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bridge of El Fraile, about halfway. Next is Chapel of the former hacienda of Buenavist.
North of the city of Querétaro, the land rises into dry hills dotted with cactus, mesquite and the remains of old haciendas. These estates were the economic engines of colonial Mexico, producing grain, livestock and pulque for the cities and mines of the north. The chapel of the former Hacienda of Buenavista stands in this landscape near the village of the same name, close to Santa Rosa Jáuregui, and it is part of the UNESCO-listed Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.
Read the complete Chapel of the former hacienda of Buenavist write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chapel of the former hacienda of Buenavist sits at 187 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bridge of El Fraile.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bridge of El Fraile write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Bridge of El Fraile comes up about 281 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 303 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco. Next is back through Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M, late in the day. Next is Bridge La Quemada.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bridge La Quemada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 473 km.
Bridge La Quemada → Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M → Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco → Bridge of El Fraile is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bridge of El Fraile → Chapel of the former hacienda of Buenavist is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chapel of the former hacienda of Buenavist → back through Bridge of El Fraile is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bridge of El Fraile → back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco → back through Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent M → Bridge La Quemada is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.