Natsitacua and Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in
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Recorded distance
248 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 15
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.
On the way it passes Tatei Matiniere, Cuhixu Uheni, Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in and back through Cuhixu Uheni. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Natsitacua
Every year, groups of Wixárika people, known in Spanish as Huichols, leave their homes in the Sierra Madre Occidental and walk, ride or drive hundreds of kilometres east to Wirikuta, the sacred desert in San Luis Potosí where, in their tradition, the sun was born. Along the way they stop at a series of sacred places, springs, hills and water holes, where they leave offerings and perform ceremonies. Natsitacua is one of these places, out on the high plains near the border of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí, and the names of the neighbouring stops on the route, such as Nihuetaritsié, are in the Wixárika language.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Natsitacua is where the day begins. Next is Tatei Matiniere.
2. Tatei Matiniere
Every year, Wixárika pilgrims walk or drive hundreds of kilometres from their homeland in the Sierra Madre Occidental to the desert of Wirikuta in San Luis Potosí, where they collect peyote, the sacred cactus they call hikuri, and perform ceremonies to renew the world. Along the way, they stop at sacred places, and Tatei Matinieri, a group of springs in the semi-desert of the Altiplano, is one of the most important. The Wixárika route through these sacred sites was listed by UNESCO in 2025, recognising a living tradition that goes back centuries.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Tatei Matiniere comes up 35 km in. Next is Cuhixu Uheni.
3. Cuhixu Uheni
Every year, groups of Wixárika pilgrims, the people known to outsiders as the Huichol, walk hundreds of kilometres from their homeland in the mountains of Jalisco and Nayarit to Wirikuta, a sacred desert in San Luis Potosí. The route crosses a chain of sacred places, springs, hills and rocks, where offerings are left and ceremonies performed, and Cuhixu Uheni, near the small town of Villa de Ramos, is one of them. The pilgrimage route as a whole has been put forward for World Heritage status as a living cultural landscape.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
69 km in you reach Cuhixu Uheni. Next is Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in.
4. Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in
Villa González Ortega is a small town on the high plateau of Zacatecas, in north central Mexico, and its church of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores is one of the sites recognised as part of the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the Royal Inland Road. This was the great trade route that linked Mexico City with the silver mines of the north and eventually with Santa Fe in New Mexico, a journey of more than two thousand kilometres across deserts, mountains and plains. For almost three centuries, wagons, mule trains, soldiers, priests and settlers travelled this road, and the towns, churches, haciendas and bridges along it tell the story of the Spanish colonisation of the north. UNESCO listed the route in 2010.