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 307 km round trip from Plateros - roughly 5 h 06 in the saddle. The stops in between: Historic Centre of Zacatecas, Huahuatsari and back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Plateros is a small town on the edge of the high desert plateau in Zacatecas, a few kilometres from the silver city of Fresnillo, and it exists, more or less, because of one small figure on an altar. The Santo Nino de Atocha, a child dressed as a pilgrim and carrying a basket and a staff, is revered here as a protector of travellers, prisoners and the sick. The devotion came from Spain, where the original image belongs to the shrine of Atocha in Madrid, and it was carried across the Atlantic by the Spanish miners who came for Zacatecas silver. The sanctuary at Plateros became one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Mexico.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Plateros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sanctuary of Plateros is where the day begins. Next is Historic Centre of Zacatecas.
Silver built Zacatecas, and you can see it in every street. The city lies in a narrow ravine at around 2,400 metres on the high plateau of north-central Mexico, founded in the 1540s after Spanish prospectors found rich silver veins in the surrounding hills. For centuries the mines here poured wealth into the Spanish crown, and the miners and merchants spent their share on churches, mansions and plazas of pinkish quarried stone. The centre became a World Heritage Site in 1993, and the city is also on the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the long colonial road that ran from Mexico City to New Mexico.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Zacatecas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Zacatecas comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Huahuatsari.
Every year, Wixárika pilgrims, the people often called Huichol, walk or travel hundreds of kilometres from their homeland in the Sierra Madre Occidental to Wirikuta, a sacred desert in San Luis Potosí, where they gather peyote and make offerings at sacred places along the way. Huahuatsari is one of the sacred sites on this route, in the high desert near Villa de Ramos. The pilgrimage route has been placed on Mexico's tentative list for World Heritage, and the sites along it are places of prayer, not tourist attractions.
Read the complete Huahuatsari write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 152 km into the recorded legs you reach Huahuatsari. Next is back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Zacatecas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas, late in the day. Next is Sanctuary of Plateros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sanctuary of Plateros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Sanctuary of Plateros. That is the ride.
Sanctuary of Plateros → Historic Centre of Zacatecas is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centre of Zacatecas → Huahuatsari is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Huahuatsari → back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas is 90 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas → Sanctuary of Plateros is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.