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 347 km round trip from Plateros - roughly 5 h 49 in the saddle. It goes by way of Historic Centre of Zacatecas, Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali, Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in and back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 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.
Read the complete Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 112 km into the recorded legs you reach Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali. Next is 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.
Read the complete Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in, about halfway. Next is back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali sits at 237 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 281 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Sanctuary of Plateros closes the day.
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 → Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali → Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in is 62 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in → back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali is 61 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Stretch of the Camino Real between Ojocali → back through Historic Centre of Zacatecas is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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.