Queretaro, Mexico

One of the most amazing trips, and a beautiful ride either by car or, preferably, by motorcycle, is through a natural area that is protected by Unesco and is a world heritage site. This is the place to go when you want to think about what its like to be human and live in such a wonderful world as ours.

Start out in Queretaro, a city that sits about 6,000 feet above sea level. Queretaro was founded in the late 1400s by the Spanish settlers, and is located about an hour and a half from Mexico city.

Travel to La Peña de Bernal and see one of the three largest rocks in the world. Continue travelling on through about thirty miles of curves and climbing into the mountains and, after about an hour, you will notice that the arid scenery starts to turn into pines and forest until you reach La Puerta del Cielo (translates as 'door to heaven'), a great place to stop for lunch. At this point you are at the highest peak of your trip. This little town stands at about 9,200 feet and you have wonderful views of mountainous pine forests.

Afterwards you start descending and again go through many turns. The weather begins to warm up and the vegetation becomes semi-tropical. You will see unbelievable scenery straight from storybooks, then you will come to Jalpan de Serra, the place where Father Junipero built one of the missions before going of to California and building the rest there. About an hour from there you will arrive at the final destination of Xilitla, a rain forest with amazing vegetation.

This trip is about six hours long and, throughout it, you will experience desert, cold pine forests, tropical paradise and finally a true rain forest.