Achupallas is a high village in Chimborazo province, about sixteen kilometres from Alausí, and the walking trail named after it, which runs south towards Ingapirca, is one of Ecuador's best-known treks. For motorcyclists the point is the landscape and the road beside it: bare páramo at over three thousand metres, with the volcanic cone of Sangay on a clear day, and little else but sheep, lupins and the odd shepherd's hut.
Ingapirca, at the other end of the trail, is the biggest Inca site in Ecuador, though it is smaller and more intimate than the Cusco monuments. The Cañari people had a sacred place here long before the Incas arrived, and the Inca builders left their stonework beside the older foundations, so the elliptical Temple of the Sun, with its beautifully fitted blocks, stands next to Cañari remains. The trail between the two places follows what was once a stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan, the imperial highway that linked Quito and Cusco, and parts of the old paving survive on the walk.
The way in is to join the Pan-American Highway south of Riobamba and riding the long, winding descent into Alausí, a railway town on a steep hillside. The famous Nariz del Diablo line leaves from here, and the town is lively on weekends with tourists and schoolchildren. Alausí, with a little over fourteen thousand people, is the nearest sensible place for fuel and lunch, and Cañar, further south, has pumps too. Take a spare layer for the tops: the air at this height is cold even in sunshine, mornings start freezing, and afternoon cloud and drizzle are common. The surface on the main road is mostly good, but the side tracks to the high villages can be rough gravel, deeply rutted in the wet.
Mornings are clearest, July to September are the driest months, and from February through May the cloud tends to sit on the hills. Altitude matters too. If you are coming up from the coast, give yourself a night in Riobamba or Alausí before you go higher, because headaches and tiredness arrive quickly at the top of the páramo. Ingapirca itself has a small museum and a modest village with simple food, and there are cheerful cafes on the road near the ruins.