The Qhapaq Ñan, the royal road of the Incas, ran for thousands of kilometres from Colombia to Chile, and in Ecuador it climbed along the spine of the highlands between Quito and Cusco. Cobbled or terraced sections survive in the high country, usually away from the modern highway, and a number of them were added to the World Heritage list in 2014 as part of the multinational road system.
Names like Caragshillo and Tuncarta tell you that this is Kichwa-speaking country, and the word Cañaro points to the Cañari, the people who held these southern valleys before the Incas arrived and who resisted them fiercely before eventually becoming useful allies. The Saraguro people, with their black wool ponchos and broad felt hats, are the best-known community of the area, and local tradition holds that their ancestors were moved here by the Incas from far away, though the details are debated.
Do not expect the wide, polished road of the postcards. These segments are often stone paths a couple of metres wide, grass-grown, with steps where the slope steepens, and they are made for feet and llamas, not wheels. The motorbike rides that link them keep to the modern roads and approach on gravel tracks that can be slick in the rain, so allow extra time and take care in cloud. The highland weather is changeable: bright, cold mornings, afternoon cloud and sudden showers are the norm, and the air at this altitude, well over two thousand metres, is thin and cool.
The Pan-American Highway runs through Saraguro and is the backbone of travel here, a mountain road with long curves, steady gradients and many trucks, and the views over green ridges and cultivated slopes are good. The town has fuel and simple food, and a bowl of hot soup and a plate of rice and potatoes with a cup of sweet coffee is the right fuel for the day.
Early morning gives the clearest air and the best light on the hills.