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 208 km loop that starts and ends near Pereira, about 4 h 14 of riding. On the way it passes Filandia, Salento, Cocora Valley and Manizales. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,550 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 31 km this is Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Pereira sits high in the Andes of Colombia's Eje Cafetero, about 1,400 metres up, and it feels like a city that was built on the profits of one small red fruit. It is the capital of the department of Risaralda, a busy, well-fed town of some 440,000 people, hemmed in by green ridges that are planted with coffee almost to the skyline. It was founded in the middle of the nineteenth century, young by Colombian standards, and it has the confident, slightly untidy energy of a place that has always been about trade.
Read the complete Pereira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pereira is where the day begins. Next is Filandia.
Filandia sits on a ridge in the hills of Quindío, in the heart of Colombia's coffee country, and the first thing that strikes you is the colour. Houses on the main streets are painted in bright blues, reds and yellows, with carved wooden balconies and doors, and on a sunny afternoon the whole village glows. It is a town that takes pride in how it looks, and it is easy to see why it has become one of the favourites of the region.
Read the complete Filandia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Filandia comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Salento.
Salento is the little town that brought tourists to the coffee region, and it has the looks to justify it. The main street, the Calle Real, runs uphill from the plaza in a row of brightly painted colonial houses with balconies and tiled roofs, lined with craft shops, cafes and restaurants, and ends at a long flight of steps up to a viewpoint over the valley. The town is small, only a few thousand people, and the atmosphere is relaxed.
Read the complete Near Salento write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 50 km into the recorded legs you reach Salento. Next is Cocora Valley.
The wax palm of Quindío is the tallest palm tree in the world, and in the Cocora Valley it stands like a forest of green-topped poles, some of them sixty metres high, rising out of steep pasture in a thin mist. It is Colombia's national tree, and seeing hundreds of them on the slopes above a cloud forest is as strange as it sounds. Cattle graze below, small streams cut through the grass, and above the palms the dark forest climbs into the high country of Los Nevados National Park. The air is cool and damp, even when the lowlands are warm.
Read the complete Cocora Valley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cocora Valley, about halfway. Next is Manizales.
Manizales is a city built on a ridge, and it takes some getting used to. The streets climb and fall at gradients that make a bicycle useless and a motorcycle a sensible choice, and at about 2,150 metres the air is cool and often misty. The city is the capital of Caldas, a coffee department, and it was founded in the middle of the nineteenth century by settlers from Antioquia who cut their way into the forest to plant coffee.
Read the complete Manizales write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Manizales sits at 107 km, late in the day. Next is Pereira.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pereira write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 208 km.
Pereira → Filandia is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Filandia → Salento is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salento → Cocora Valley is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cocora Valley → Manizales is 97 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Manizales → Pereira is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.