Tatei Matiniere and Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
784 km
Riding-time estimate
17 h 21
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.
784 km from La Herradura to La Herradura, about 17 h 21 of riding. It goes by way of Uxa Tequipa, Nihuetaritsié, Cuhixu Uheni and Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Uxa Tequipa.
2. Uxa Tequipa
In the high desert of northern San Luis Potosí, among creosote bush, yucca and endless sky, lies a landscape that is sacred to the Wixárika, the people outsiders often call the Huichol. Every year, pilgrims walk or travel hundreds of kilometres from their homes in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Jalisco and Nayarit to Wirikuta, the place where, in their cosmology, the sun was born. Along the way they stop at a sequence of sacred sites, springs, rocks and hills, each with its own name, offerings and rituals. Uxa Tequipa is one of these places, and the route as a whole has been proposed for the UNESCO list as Huiricuta, the Wixárika sacred route.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Uxa Tequipa comes up 42 km in. Next is Nihuetaritsié.
3. Nihuetaritsié
High desert stretches away in every direction here, dotted with yucca, nopal cactus and mesquite, under a sky that seems twice as big as anywhere else. For centuries the Wixárika have made pilgrimages from their homeland in the Sierra Madre Occidental across these plains to Wirikuta, the sacred desert near Real de Catorce, stopping at springs, hills and other holy places along the way. This is one of those places, a spot that matters in their ritual geography even if, to an outsider, it looks like empty desert.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
85 km in you reach Nihuetaritsié. Next is Cuhixu Uheni.
4. 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
Cuhixu Uheni, about halfway. Next is Temple of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores in.
5. 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.