Ibarra sits in a high basin in northern Ecuador at around 2,200 metres, beneath the green slopes of Imbabura volcano, and the Inca road ran right through this valley. The Qhapaq Ñan, the Andean road system, stretched over 30,000 kilometres from Colombia to Chile and Argentina, linking the Inca empire, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2014. The segment between Pimán and Caranqui is one of the preserved sections in Ecuador, a stretch of old path through farmland and hills, with dry-stone edging in places and the kind of steady, sensible gradient Inca engineers favoured for runners and llama trains. Caranqui, now a suburb of Ibarra, was an important Inca centre, and local tradition claims it as the birthplace of Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor.
Ibarra is known as the white city, for its whitewashed colonial buildings, and it was largely rebuilt after an earthquake destroyed it in 1868. It is a pleasant, laid-back town with fuel, shops, restaurants and hotels. Try the helados de paila, sorbet churned in a copper pan over ice, a local specialty.
North of the town, Yahuarcocha, the lake of blood, is named after a battle in which the Inca are said to have massacred the Caranqui people. Today, it has a motor racing circuit around the lake. To the south, the town of Otavalo hosts one of the largest indigenous markets in South America, and the Andean landscape around it, with volcanoes, lakes and patchwork fields, is spectacular.
Riding here is a mix of good highways, like the Pan-American, and rough, steep cobbled or dirt roads into the hills. Altitude affects both rider and machine, and weather can change quickly, with rain and fog in the afternoon. Watch for buses, trucks, dogs and livestock. The dry season, roughly June to September, is the best time to ride, and mornings usually offer the clearest views of the volcanoes.