Day 234 – 260: Mexican Highlands

January 8-25, 2025 (plus more days back in the USA)

In this segment we explore the central Mexican highlands between Guadalajara (5,100 feet elevation) and Mexico City (7,300 feet) delighting in the variety & history of the region. At Mexico City we returned to the USA for a couple weeks off the bicycles.    

• Day 234 – Guadalajara to Zapotlanejo – 39 km/287 m climbing
• Day 235 – Zapotlanejo to Atotonilco el alto – 65k/631m 
• Day 236 – Atotonilco el alto to La Piedad – 84k/401m
• Day 237 – La Piedad to Irapuato – 89k/335m
• Day 238 – Irapuato to Guanajuato – 45k/636m
• Day 239 & 240 – Layover @ Guanajuato
• Day 241 – Guanajuato to San Miguel de Allende – 78k/818m
• Day 242 – Layover @ San Miguel de Allende
• Day 243 – San Miguel de Allende to Queretaro – 58k/546m
• Day 244 – Queretaro to San Juan del Rio – 64k/458m
• Day 245 – San Juan del Rio to San Francisco – 68k/908m
• Day 246 – San Francisco to Tepotzotlan – 54k/469m
• Day 247 – Tepotzotlan to Satellite – 29k/394m
• Day 248 & 249 – Layover @ Mexico City
• Days 250 to 260 – back to the USA

Total trip distance: 6,700 miles (10,800 km)
Total trip climbing: 296,000 feet 
Countries: USA, Canada, Mexico
Mexican states: Sonora, Baja California, Baja Sur, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Mexico, Mexico City (federal district)
Dustin’s hair length: shall we say “shoulder length” 🙂

Leaving Guadalajara we planned a shorter cycling day because often leaving big cities takes longer as we often have to stop for traffic and lights plus we hadn’t biked in a few days so an easier day helps to get us back in the rhythm. Leaving the large metro area was fairly simple following the route from Komoot imported into the Garmin – added bonus Guadalajara has wonderful dedicated bike lanes to keep us separated from traffic. 

Our surprise came when we arrived in Zapotlanejo – almost every shop in the town seemed to be a clothing store. Apparently this town has 1,300 clothing shops for just 73,000 residents and people come from all over, mainly Guadalajara, to shop for clothes. We participated in the clothing frenzy by getting Patricia a new “town” shirt. 

We moved on the next day to Atotonilco el alto, the “el alto” means “the high one” referring to its elevation. This working class town in the central Mexican highlands has significant mining operations and we were surprised by loud booms lasting for about an our in the evening and then once again for an hour in the morning. We are assuming blast mining was occurring in the area. 

 The next day we moved onto La Piedad, Michoacan (our 7th Mexican state) – another working class industrial town that serves as a hub for agriculture and is known as the center of the Mexican pork industry. We observed massive tomato farms and were passed by several trucks conveying pigs to the slaughterhouse. 

Irapuato in the state of Guanajuato (our 8th state) was our destination the next day. This agricultural and industrial town holds special meaning to Patricia as she visited here over 20 years ago as an engineer for General Mills while she was working on Green Giant frozen vegetables. The plant in Irapuato would process, freeze and bulk pack broccoli & cauliflower, among other veggies, to be shipped to the Belvidere, Illinois plant where they were packaged into Green Giant finished products. Interestingly similar to Belvidere, Irapuato is also known for its automotive industry – we observed many parts and assembly factories as we cycled past.

To the Mexicans, Irapuato is famous for its “fresas” strawberries which were for sale frequently on the sides of the highways/streets. The town has the most unique stoplights we’d seen – shaped like strawberries! 

The bicycle ride from Irapuato to Guanajuato was one of those “this will be a piece of cake” rides that turned into quite the adventure. We *only* had 45 km to ride – just over 27 miles so we decided to take some backroads to see local villages. We did not anticipate that this route would have large pools of water on the roads we’d have to navigate around and then a creek we’d have to cross. When we got to the creek we stopped along with some motorbikes to assess the situation – the motorbike went for it and we decided we could as well. We changed our shoes to Chacos just incase our pedals were submerged or we had to put a foot down in the creek. 

We’d made it across the creek, whew! Now our tires were thickly coated with mud that was not coming off – we rode into the next town and Dustin spotted an Auto Lavado (car wash) and suggested we inquire about getting some of the mud off before we arrived in Guanajuato to our AirBnB and made a mess. The owner of the car wash gave us a price and then she, along with her 4 employees, spent a long time trying to get the mud out from under our fenders. They were proud of their work and asked us to take pictures 🙂 

We continued on heading toward Guanajuato, a unique city situated in a narrow valley famous for its silver mining history, colonial architecture, narrow streets & alleys, tunnels and underground roads. Riding into town we had to pedal through a tunnel which can be very dangerous for bicyclists especially when the tunnels are long enough to be completely dark. Fortunately for us our panniers (bike bags) are reflective, we can turn our front & rear flashing lights to a setting best for dark situations, AND this particular tunnel had a sidewalk that we were able to ride on 🙂 

We stayed in Guanajuato for three nights touring the city and signed up for a special tour, via AirBnB, with a local architect, focusing on some of the historical buildings and specifically on the subterraneo, underground roadway that used to be the river. This is the second time we’ve done a tour through “AirBnB experiences” and they’ve both been phenomenal. 

We loved Guanajuato with its artsy, university town vibe combined with historical architecture. We were able to eat both Japanese & middle-eastern meals in this international town – such a nice break from the standard Mexican fare. The Mexican food has been wonderful but it sure is nice to take a break from tortillas haha – we’ve done an “International Food of Mexico” section at the end of this post.

After several nights in (very) inexpensive hotels with varying levels of quality we splashed out for a nice place in Guanajuato where we had plenty of room to spread out, cook some meals, and chill out. Leaving town was another adventure…our route took us underground on the subterraneo but we weren’t sure we were going the right way because the Garmin stops working in the tunnels. Cycling uphill in a poorly ventilated underground tunnel on a narrow sidewalk was challenging but sure beat pushing our very heavy bicycles up a 15% grade road. Only 3 U-turns later we were out of the city! We spent the remainder of the day pedaling toward our next stop, San Miguel de Allende. 

San Miguel de Allende is quite touristed because of its art scene – apparently several World War II veterans used the GI bill to attend art school in the town and then retired to the area. The old section of town has been designated a World Heritage Site and thereby attracts tourists as well. It was neat to see and the international food was phenomenal but overall the town was a bit touristy for our tastes.

Our next stop was Queretaro, another advancing industrial town with many IT companies. We stayed at a lovely hostel and enjoyed a chill night to prepare for our next several days of cycling.

For the next four days we made our way toward Satellite, a suburb of Mexico City, where we were left our bicycles with ex-pat friends. For a couple days we did challenging rural rides where we pedaled through vast farm fields of varying quality “roads” and then for the last two days we took the “quota” (tollway) for easier riding but the tradeoff was being passed constantly by loud, fast, and large vehicles.

We cycled to a suburb of Mexico City where we left our bicycles and most of our gear while we head back to the States for a couple weeks. We stayed in Mexico City for two nights before our flight and barely scratched the surface of this vast metropolitan area (6th largest in the world!).

International Cuisine of Mexico

The traditional food of Mexico has been amazing but Patricia started suffering from some (debilitating) indigestion recently so we’ve been dining on more international fare lately as we’ve reached the larger towns and cities. Here is a sampling of some of that food:

Taking a break from bicycling

We are currently in Fort Lauderdale, Florida taking a couple weeks off the bicycles – we left our bikes and most of our gear with friends outside of Mexico City while we are back in the states. Not having seen most of Dustin’s family for quite some time we decided to join a family cruise in the Caribbean. We will return to Mexico City the first week in February to resume the trip 🙂

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