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.
A 253 km round trip from Rancho de Guadalupe - roughly 4 h 28 in the saddle. On the way it passes Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco, Former hacienda of Chichimequillas and back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 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.
Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Former hacienda of Chichimequillas.
On the high, dry plain northeast of Querétaro, the village of Chichimequillas grew up around an old hacienda, one of the many great estates that lined the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Inland Road that connected Mexico City with Santa Fe, in what is now New Mexico, for nearly three centuries. Silver, mercury, cloth, livestock, missionaries and soldiers travelled this route, and haciendas like this one supplied food, water and rest. The route was listed by UNESCO in 2010 as a series of sites, and the hacienda is one of them; its old buildings, chapel and walls hint at the wealth and power once concentrated here.
Read the complete Former hacienda of Chichimequillas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 128 km into the recorded legs you reach Former hacienda of Chichimequillas. 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.
back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco, 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.
Back at Bridge La Quemada. That is the ride.
Bridge La Quemada → Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco → Former hacienda of Chichimequillas is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Former hacienda of Chichimequillas → back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco → Bridge La Quemada is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.