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 Guanajuato it runs 292 km to Guanajuato; allow about 4 h 46 of riding. It goes by way of Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco, Bridge La Quemada 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.
Guanajuato sits at the bottom of a steep, narrow ravine in the central Mexican highlands, at around two thousand metres, and the colour of the city is the first surprise. Houses in ochre, rose, turquoise and yellow climb the hillsides in tiers, with domes and bell towers rising among them, and the streets twist in all directions. The city grew rich from silver, with mines such as La Valenciana, which in the eighteenth century produced a large share of the world's supply, and the wealth paid for baroque churches, mansions and theatres. UNESCO listed the historic town and the silver mines in 1988.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of Guanajuato write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic centre of the city of Guanajuato 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 83 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bridge La Quemada.
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.
about 144 km into the recorded legs you reach Bridge La Quemada. 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 Historic centre of the city of Guanajuato.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic centre of the city of Guanajuato write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Historic centre of the city of Guanajuato. That is the ride.
Historic centre of the city of Guanajuato → Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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.
Bridge La Quemada → back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco → Historic centre of the city of Guanajuato is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.