Huirjcuta: Raunax and Tuy Mayau starting at Real de Catorce
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
245 km
Riding-time estimate
7 h 36
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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 245 km round trip from Real de Catorce - roughly 7 h 36 in the saddle. It goes by way of Huiricuta: Mucuyahue, Huacuri Quitenie, Tuy Mayau and back through Huacuri Quitenie. 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Huirjcuta: Raunax
For the Wixarika people, also known as the Huichol, the high desert of San Luis Potosí is the place where the sun was born, and every year pilgrims walk or travel hundreds of kilometres from their mountain villages in Jalisco and Nayarit to Wirikuta, a sacred landscape around the old mining town of Real de Catorce.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Huirjcuta: Raunax is where the day begins. Next is Huiricuta: Mucuyahue.
2. Huiricuta: Mucuyahue
In the high desert of San Luis Potosí, below the mountains of the Sierra de Catorce, lies Wirikuta, the most sacred landscape of the Wixárika people, better known as the Huichol. Every year, pilgrims walk or drive hundreds of kilometres from their homes in the mountains of Jalisco and Nayarit to this semi-desert, following a route they believe their ancestors travelled at the beginning of time. According to their tradition, the sun was born on the hill called Cerro Quemado above Real de Catorce, and the desert is where they come to collect hikuri, the peyote cactus, which they consider a sacred plant and use in ceremonies. The various sacred sites along the pilgrimage, including this one, are on Mexico's tentative list for World Heritage.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Huiricuta: Mucuyahue comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Huacuri Quitenie.
3. Huacuri Quitenie
Somewhere in the creosote flats north of Charcas, in San Luis Potosí, the land that the Wixárika people call Wirikuta begins to feel different, even to a visitor who knows nothing of its meaning. The horizon widens, the mountains of the Sierra de Catorce rise to the east, and on a clear morning the whole desert seems to hum. Huacuri Quitenie is one of the sacred places along the Wixárika pilgrimage route to Wirikuta, where pilgrims stop to pray and leave offerings on their way to Leunar, the hill they call Cerro Quemado, where the sun was born.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Huacuri Quitenie. Next is Tuy Mayau.
4. Tuy Mayau
Out in the high desert of San Luis Potosí, near the town of Charcas, lies a landscape that for the Wixárika people, often called the Huichol, is the most sacred place on earth. Wirikuta is the land where, in their cosmology, the sun was born, and each year pilgrims walk or travel hundreds of kilometres from their homeland in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Jalisco and Nayarit to reach it, visiting a chain of sacred springs, hills and other sites along the way.