CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 170 km, Bucaramanga to Barichara - roughly 3 h 23 in the saddle. It goes by way of Chicamocha Canyon and San Gil. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 96 km this is Chicamocha Canyon Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Bucaramanga is a big, hilly, surprisingly green city in the northern Andes, and for riders it is the doorway to one of the great canyons of South America. It lies at around a thousand metres on a plateau in the department of Santander, with some 570,000 people in the city proper and many more in the neighbouring towns of Floridablanca and Girón. People call it the city of parks, and the bulk of its trees and gardens do, in fairness, make the heat easier to bear.
Read the complete Bucaramanga write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bucaramanga is where the day begins. Next is Chicamocha Canyon.
The Chicamocha is one of the great canyons of South America, and the road along its edge has a scale that surprises people who think of Colombia as green and gentle. The river has cut a gorge in the Santander mountains that is more than a kilometre deep in places and stretches for over two hundred kilometres, a dry, rugged landscape of cactus, scrub and layers of rock in shades of ochre, red and grey. Locals will tell you it is among the biggest canyons in the world, and the view from the rim makes you believe it.
Read the complete Chicamocha Canyon write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chicamocha Canyon comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is San Gil.
San Gil calls itself the adventure capital of Colombia, and it earns the title with rivers, caves and cliffs in every direction. The town sits in the Santander hills above the Fonce river, near its meeting with the Suárez, and the rapids on both are among the best in the country for rafting. Paragliders launch from the ridges above the canyon, and cavers explore the limestone passages nearby. After a morning on the road, the shops offering tours look more tempting than the usual souvenir stalls.
Read the complete San Gil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 147 km into the recorded legs you reach San Gil. Next is Barichara.
Barichara is the kind of town that makes people use superlatives, and for once they are mostly justified. Founded in the early eighteenth century on a ledge above the Suárez river canyon in Santander, it has kept its colonial streets almost intact: whitewashed houses with red-tile roofs, wooden doors and balconies, and pavements of pale stone that glow in the evening light. The name is thought to mean a place of rest in the language of the old Guane people, and the town lives up to it. With about four thousand people, it is small enough to cross on foot in a few minutes.
Read the complete Barichara write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Barichara closes the day.
Bucaramanga → Chicamocha Canyon is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chicamocha Canyon → San Gil is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Gil → Barichara is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.