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A beautiful ride across cities
and places named World Heritage by the Unesco, through an
splendid protected natural area and ending in a
surrealistic garden by artist Sir Edward James. Just keep
reading... The ride starts in Queretaro City at 5,970 ft
above sea level.
Queretaro is a colonial
city founded more than 500 years ago and named World
Heritage by the Unesco in 1996 . It's located in the
center of the country two hours North Mexico City.
Nowadays it has become one of the most dynamic cities in
Mexico due to the surrounding industrial parks where many
international companies are located.
The first stop is just 45
minutes away: "La Peña de Bernal" (The
"Rock of Bernal"). We are talking about the
third biggest rock in the world and the highest in Mexico.
At its feet a quaint little town were you can stop for a
soda, lunch or spend the night. You can also find nice
little souvenirs. Whatever you decide to do, this place is
a must.
If you like rock climbing,
you are in the right place too!
The road to Bernal doesn't
present any major challenge, most of the road is straight
with just a few extended curves... but just after passing
Bernal it starts to get fun!
Surrounded by an arid
landscape due the high content of lime in the soil, you
start with a very interesting section of twisties, one
after another, up and down, a technical road between the
mountains for about 30 miles. The landscape changes a bit
as you advance and a few miles later you are in the middle
of a semidesert.
After this twisty section
you then continue on a straight part of the road. A few
more miles down the route and you find a military
checkpoint... Don't worry about it, they are normally
courteous people just looking for arm and drug smugglers.
After the control point the
curves and the fun start again. As you get to "Peña
Blanca" ("White Rock" in English) - by the
way if you need gas, this is the place to stop and fill it
up - you start climbing the mountains twist after twist.
I love this part: most of
the ride you can clearly see three or four turns in front
of you, and as it is a low traffic road, you can enjoy
yourself taking the best lines (always keeping it in the
safe side if you know what I mean!).
After climbing for a while
you notice how things start to change and suddenly what
were rocks, sand and cactus are now pine trees. It's
beautiful.. You feel the change of temperature and then
you reach "La Puerta del Cielo" (The Door of
Heavens") the highest point in this ride.
We are now at about 9200
feet above sea level... The turns continue but now you are
going downhill. Remember to adjust your riding to that
fact. Unfortunately I have seen more than one forgetting
about it that and paying the consequences.
As you start descending you
ride through a small town called Pinal the Amoles...
descend, turn turn, descend turn turn, descend turn
turn... I love it! About 10 miles after Pinal de Amoles,
the weather starts to change again and gets warmer. The
vegetation also suffers a sudden transformation.
You keep devouring the road
and you cannot help but getting marveled of the landscape
around you... Just remember to keep your eyes on the road!
Turn, turn... You are in the middle of the Sierra Gorda
protected area and home of multiple plants and animals.
You continue descending
till you reach Jalpan de Serra the most important town in
the Sierra Gorda and place where Father Junipero Serra
built one of his most important missions in the area
before heading north to build the Missions in California.
These missions were also named World Heritage by the
Unesco in 2003.
In Jalpan you can find a
couple of simple but nice hotels and some restaurants.
Another possibility to spend the night is to ride a few
more miles west to a place called Conca where you 'll find
a hotel with Spa to relax from the day's ride and get
ready for the rest of the trip.
After Jalpan our next stop
and final destination is Xilitla, so you head north-east
till you reach the state of San Luis Potosi.
A few miles after crossing
the state limits in the middle of the mountains, at about
3,300 ft asl, in a rain forest of incredible vegetation
you get to Xilitla.
This town was chosen by Sir
Edward James, a surrealistic British artist - also noble
and rich -, to spend the rest of his life. It is in this
place he built a huge garden, a private zoo and a
meditation place in the middle of the jungle. Its very
difficult to describe it with words... Maybe the photos in
this site can help: http://www.junglegossip.com/.
In Xilitla you can stay in
the Castillo "The Castle" the house of former
Sir Edward James' right hand and friend: Plutarco
Gastelum. This exclusive Bed and Breakfast is unique in
its kind and you can see, feel and breath the influence of
the artist everywhere.
Another possibility to
spend the night is to ride a bit more to the north and
stay in Ciudad Valles an important city of San Luis Potosi
state where you will find all kind of hotels and
restaurants, night life etc.
My recommendation... stay
at the Castillo, forget about your ride and enjoy for a
whole day this Mexican Shangri La.
After spending the whole
day in Xilitla prepare for a long ride back to Queretaro.
For this one I like to leave early in the morning and
keep, if possible, a fast pace. Turn, turn...
We are talking about many
miles and literally hundreds of twisties... Once my wife
counted them... She stopped when she was at the 500th and
we hadn't arrived back to Queretaro City yet!
It's so fun that the time
flies and suddenly you realize it's all over and you would
like to turn around and do it again...
You know the feeling right?
Another possibility from
Xilitla is to head to the famous Huasteca Potosina a zone
of exuberant rivers, waterfalls and springs... But that
area deserves a whole article by itself. I will be writing
it in the future.
If you liked the trip I
described and want more information about great motorcycle
rides in Mexico and/or to contact me for any other issue
please visit my site at www.japanese-motorcycles-only.com.
Enjoy the ride!
Daniel Levy
P.S. Below you will find a
few facts about this ride.
Facts about the ride:
Difficulty:
Intermediate-Advanced
Recommended time to enjoy the trip: 3-4 days
Total length of the ride: about 600 miles
Checkpoints:
Queretaro-Bernal
Bernal-Military Checkpoint
Military Checkpoint-Pinal de Amoles
Pinal de Amoles-Jalpan de Serra
Jalpan de Serra-Xilitla
Weather: normally clear and
dry with the exception of the rainy season from July to
September where you can find some heavy rain.
Recommended Map: Guia Roji
Mexico Tourist Road Atlas. You can find it at Amazon.
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