Cupuri Mutiu and Former college of Nuestra Señora de Guadal
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
310 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 27
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Jerez de García Salinas it runs 310 km to Jerez de García Salinas; allow about 5 h 27 of riding. On the way it passes Cacai Mutijé, Macuipa, Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali and Former college of Nuestra Señora de Guadal. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cupuri Mutiu
Jerez de García Salinas is the reason most riders end up here, and it is a happy accident if they do. This colonial town in the west of Zacatecas state, a couple of kilometres from the point, is a Pueblo Mágico with a leafy plaza, an ornate little theatre, the Teatro Hinojosa, said to be modelled on Ford's Theatre in Washington, and the childhood home of Ramón López Velarde, the poet whose verses about provincial Mexico every schoolchild there knows. Jerez is a ranchero town at heart, with saddle makers, boot shops and men in hats, and the Easter fair with its horses and music draws people from across the region.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cupuri Mutiu is where the day begins. Next is Cacai Mutijé.
2. Cacai Mutijé
Out here on the high plateau west of Zacatecas the land is all wide sky, nopal, mesquite and red-brown earth, and it takes a while to understand that you are standing on a pilgrimage path. Cacai Mutijé is one of the sacred places of the Wixárika, the people outsiders long called Huichol, on the route their pilgrims follow from their home communities in the Sierra Madre Occidental across Zacatecas to Wirikuta, the desert of San Luis Potosí where they gather hikuri, the peyote cactus, and where in their cosmology the sun was born. The path has been walked for centuries and was recognised by UNESCO only recently, which tells you something about how long the rest of the world took to notice.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cacai Mutijé comes up 27 km in. Next is Macuipa.
3. Macuipa
Macuipa lies on the edge of Zacatecas, the silver capital of northern Mexico, and the name points to the sacred geography of the Wixárika, the Huichol people, whose pilgrimage route passes through this region on its way from their homeland in the Sierra Madre Occidental to Wirikuta, the sacred desert in San Luis Potosí. For centuries, Wixárika pilgrims have walked this route, hundreds of kilometres long, visiting springs, hills and rocks where their deities dwell, leaving offerings and performing ceremonies. The route has recently been recognised by UNESCO. Exactly what is to be seen at Macuipa is not easy to say from a distance; treat it as a place where two very different worlds, the Spanish silver city and the indigenous sacred landscape, meet.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
55 km in you reach Macuipa. Next is Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali.
4. Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali
The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Road of the Interior, ran for more than two and a half thousand kilometres from Mexico City to Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico, and carried silver, mercury, supplies and missionaries for nearly three hundred years. UNESCO inscribed a series of its sections and sites in 2010, and the stretch near Ojocaliente, in the state of Zacatecas, passes through high, dry country at around two thousand metres, with the town of Trancoso eight kilometres away and the city of Zacatecas to the west.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali, about halfway. Next is Former college of Nuestra Señora de Guadal.
5. Former college of Nuestra Señora de Guadal
Zacatecas was built on silver, and the town next to it, Guadalupe, was built on faith. In the middle of the eighteenth century a Franciscan college was founded here to train missionaries who would go north into the unconquered country, and its big church, cloisters and long galleries still stand on the edge of the city, now serving as a museum of colonial art with paintings, carved altarpieces and religious objects. The college once sent friars as far as Texas and California.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 310 km.
Leg by leg
Cupuri Mutiu to Cacai Mutijé
Cupuri Mutiu → Cacai Mutijé is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cacai Mutijé to Macuipa
Cacai Mutijé → Macuipa is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Macuipa to Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali
Macuipa → Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali to Former college of Nuestra Señora de Guadal
Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali → Former college of Nuestra Señora de Guadal is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Former college of Nuestra Señora de Guadal to back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali
Former college of Nuestra Señora de Guadal → back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali to back through Macuipa
back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali → back through Macuipa is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Macuipa to back through Cacai Mutijé
back through Macuipa → back through Cacai Mutijé is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cacai Mutijé to Cupuri Mutiu
back through Cacai Mutijé → Cupuri Mutiu is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.