Cañada de la Virgen — Attraction in Guanajuato

This place is awesome. A few caveats: There are hoops to jump through to be allowed to see this site. The pyramid is located on private land that was donated to the federal government. They limit the amount of people that are allowed to visit at one time in order to preserve the site. You have to be escorted, either by a federal employee that works at the site, or by a tour guide. You have to take a tour bus from the visitor center to the site, and they run hourly. It is the only pyramid in Mexico you can climb!

If you want to learn about this site, don’t bother going unless you get a tour guide and I highly recommend Albert Coffee’s tour - he is an archaeologist and was actually a part of the dig that excavated the site! He is very knowledgeable and it was incredible to learn about the amazing history of this area. Five stars for him.

If we didn’t have a tour guide, I would give this a 1 star, because as we were finishing the tour and walking to the bus pickup site, the employee, Margarit, that was escorting the other small group that was at the site at the same time, took her group ahead of us and told the driver of the bus to leave our group behind, so our group was stranded for an hour waiting for the bus to return. It was extremely hot and sunny, and most of us had run out of water by that time since the tour was over. Extremely unprofessional, and distressing to the group that was mostly people over...

Update…. Albert Coffee sadly passed away March 2025. Be careful of tours using his name! Original Review…. Albert Coffee, our english-speaking archeologist tour guide at Cañada de La Virgen (booking.com attractions) had a wealth of information on our Tuesday tour. We left from the Centro and it was a nice 20 minute A/C van ride. We appreciated his prepared presentation to keep the tour on track and not miss any details. The pyramid complex is beautiful and fascinating! It is hard to imagine the difficult, barbaric, superstitious and ceremonial-filled lifestyle of the intelligent Otomi over a thousand years ago. Highly Recommend! You can still climb the pyramid here! NOTE: There is a lot of uphill/downhill walking and at 7,000 feet (2,150 meters) the beauty of the area isn’t the only thing to take your breath away! Pyramid stairs are steep and narrow so you should be in very good physical health. Sunscreen, very protective hat (even in winter), excellent shoes to walk and hike, and lots of water (some provided by our tour before the hike) are needed. Backpacks, snacks, purses and bags are NOT allowed at the pyramid and were securely stored in...

This is a place that far exceeds what you would expect from information available about it online. Wikipedia doesn't begin to do it justice, nor does its own self-promotional material. Every few hours, a guided tour departs from a visitor's center. The timing of these is not publicized, but I know from experience there is one at 1:00pm, and another at 3:30pm. A mini-bus takes visitors within a kilometer of the main site, and you walk the rest of the way in order to keep the main site pristine. The canyon (cañada) along the way is breathtakingly beautiful.

The actual tour begins by following a maze of trails where pottery shards in situ can be seen, along with other ceremonial sites. The highlights are the buildings themselves, each distinctly different from the others. The main pyramid is the 8th wonder of the ancient world. Very imposing. The guide allows visitors to climb to the very top, and to linger there, for what can be considered the summit of the day. All told, the tour is a satisfying 2 1/2 hours, and you never feel rushed. Along with Jardin, and El Charco del Ingenio, Cañada de la Virgen, is among San Miguel de Allende's...