The small inland town of Miraflores, about 70 kilometers northeast of Cabo San Lucas, hosted the second round of the Domin Bike Miraflores 2026 cycling series on Sunday. The event drew local athletes and visitors to a mountain bike circuit through the Sierra de la Laguna foothills. It is part of a growing calendar of activities leading to the Fiesta de la Pitahaya in July, an annual celebration of the region’s prized cactus fruit.
Miraflores Cycling Event Connects Rural Los Cabos to Adventure Tourism
Miraflores sits along the Tropic of Cancer in the municipality of Los Cabos. The town of roughly 3,000 residents has long served as a gateway to the Sierra de la Laguna Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO-recognized protected area spanning more than 112,000 hectares. Yet most tourists who fly into San José del Cabo or Cabo San Lucas never venture beyond the hotel corridor that connects the two cities.
The Domin Bike series is an effort to change that pattern. Elton Olachea Arce, director of the Los Cabos Sports Institute (the municipal sports authority), said the circuit is designed to bring social and economic energy to the delegaciones, the rural subdivisions that make up most of the municipality’s land area. “These circuits don’t just test our athletes,” Olachea said. “They reactivate the social fabric of the delegaciones in a healthy way.”
Sunday’s route logistics fell to Alvino Collins González, who heads the municipal sports coordination office. His team managed course safety and timing. Rubén de la Peña, the municipal fiscal inspection coordinator, oversaw vendor placement and commercial perimeters along the course. Street vendors selling regional food and handmade goods lined the route, a common feature at cycling events in rural Baja California Sur.
Municipal officials tied the event to the public recreation policies of Los Cabos Mayor Christian Agúndez Gómez. His administration has pushed to bring organized activities to communities outside the tourist zone. The first Domin Bike ride took place earlier this year, and organizers said Sunday’s turnout set a benchmark for the July festivities ahead.
The Pitahaya Festival Has Roots in Sierra de la Laguna Harvesting Traditions
The Fiesta de la Pitahaya celebrates the pitahaya dulce, a sweet cactus fruit harvested from wild columnar cacti across the Cape Region of Baja California Sur. The fruit ripens between June and August, depending on rainfall and elevation. Indigenous Pericú and Guaycura peoples relied on pitahaya as a seasonal staple for centuries before Spanish colonization. Jesuit missionaries in the 1700s documented the fruit’s central role in the diet and culture of the peninsula’s original inhabitants.
Today the festival in Miraflores typically runs over several days in mid-July. Past editions have featured pitahaya tastings, cooking demonstrations, live music, horseback rides, and artisan markets. Local producers sell pitahaya jams, wines, and dried fruit alongside leather goods and palm-woven crafts. The fruit itself, with its magenta flesh and mild sweetness, is distinct from the more widely known dragon fruit (pitaya) sold in Asian and Central American markets.
The Cape Region’s pitahaya harvest depends entirely on wild-growing cacti, not cultivated orchards. That makes the fruit supply variable from year to year. A good rainy season in the sierra produces an abundant harvest; a dry winter can mean slim pickings. Organizers view the cycling series as a way to build a broader event calendar that does not depend solely on fruit availability.
How to Reach Miraflores From the Los Cabos Tourist Corridor
Miraflores is accessible by car from San José del Cabo in about 45 minutes via Highway 1 north to the town of Santa Anita, then east on a paved two-lane road. The drive passes through dry arroyos and ranch land dotted with cardón cacti, the tallest cacti in the world. Several tour operators in San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas offer day trips to the Sierra de la Laguna that pass through or near Miraflores.
The town has a few small restaurants, a historic leather shop, and a 19th-century Jesuit mission-era church. There is no gas station in Miraflores itself, so visitors should fuel up in San José del Cabo before heading inland. Cell service is spotty once you leave the main highway.
The third Domin Bike ride has not yet been dated, but organizers said additional rounds will take place before the Pitahaya Festival begins in July. Details on dates and registration are expected through the Los Cabos Sports Institute’s social media channels. This story was first reported by BCS Noticias.