CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
curated scenic road. coffee landscape, Andes, wax palms. A one-way ride of 209 km, Pereira to Pereira - roughly 4 h 16 in the saddle. On the way it passes Salento, Filandia and Manizales. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 24 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.
Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 1 sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 2.
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.
Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 2 comes up 27 km in. Next is Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 3.
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.
54 km in you reach Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 3. Next is Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 4.
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.
Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 4, about halfway. Next is Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 5.
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.
Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 5 sits at 107 km, late in the day. Next is Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 6.
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.
Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop point 6 comes up 209 km in.