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 203 km round trip from Lima - roughly 4 h 36 in the saddle. The stops in between: Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac, Segment Molle - Huarangal, Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay and back through Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 30 km this is Peru Coastal Panamericana South, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Spanish had a word for what they did to the Andean countryside in the 1570s: reduccion. Under the viceroy Francisco de Toledo, scattered hamlets were gathered into planned towns around a plaza and a church, so that the people could be counted, taxed, taught the catechism and put to work, and a settlement named for Santiago, the apostle the conquistadors invoked in battle, was one of hundreds of such foundations.
Read the complete Ancient Reduction of Santiago Apostle of C write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancient Reduction of Santiago Apostle of C is where the day begins. Next is Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac.
Lima is one of the driest capitals on earth, and yet just south of it, in the hills above the Lurín valley, the desert turns green for a few months every year. The Lomas de Quebrada Verde are fog oases, where the winter mist called garúa, rolling in from the cold Pacific between roughly June and October, condenses on the hillsides and brings to life a brief explosion of grass, flowers, cacti and shrubs, attracting birds, butterflies and the people of Lima, who come here to walk. The segment between Quebrada Verde and Pachacamac is part of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system, which linked the coast with the highlands.
Read the complete Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Molle - Huarangal.
The names tell a story about the land. Molle is the Peruvian pepper tree, with its weeping branches and pink berries, and a huarangal is a grove of huarango, the tough, deep-rooted desert tree that once covered much of the Peruvian coast. Between these two places, in the lower hills east of Lima toward the Lurín valley, runs a short stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road network. Here the road descended from the highlands toward the sanctuary of Pachacamac on the coast, one of the most important religious centres of the ancient Andes, where an oracle drew pilgrims from far and wide. The segment is part of the UNESCO listing of the Andean Road System.
Read the complete Segment Molle - Huarangal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 63 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Molle - Huarangal. Next is Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay.
The Peruvian coast is a desert, and the road up from Lima to the mountains is one of the most dramatic climbs in the Andes. Sisicaya and Santa Rosa de Chontay lie in the Huarochirí province, in the hills above the Rímac valley east of Lima, where the Inca road once climbed from the coastal plain to the high sierra. This stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan, part of the six-country UNESCO listing of 2014, follows ridges and dry valleys, with stone steps, retaining walls and terraces that are still visible if you know where to look.
Read the complete Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay, about halfway. Next is Segment Molle - Huarangal.
If a place could be known by its tree, Huarangal would be known by the huarango. This slow-growing, deep-rooted tree of the Peruvian coast, a kind of mesquite, once covered the dry valleys and fed the ancient people with its sweet pods, and the old Inca road passed through it. Much of the forest has been cut for charcoal and farmland, but a few trees survive, and the name of the place keeps the memory. The segment between Molle and Huarangal is a stretch of the Qhapaq Nan, the Inca road network that was listed as a World Heritage site in 2014, in the dry foothills of the Andes east of Lima, where the Rimac valley opens out and the desert meets the mountains.
Read the complete Segment Molle - Huarangal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Molle - Huarangal sits at 105 km, about halfway. Next is back through Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay comes up about 121 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Segment Molle - Huarangal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Molle - Huarangal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Segment Molle - Huarangal. Next is back through Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac, late in the day. Next is Ancient Reduction of Santiago Apostle of C.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancient Reduction of Santiago Apostle of C write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 203 km.
Ancient Reduction of Santiago Apostle of C → Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac → Segment Molle - Huarangal is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Molle - Huarangal → Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay → Segment Molle - Huarangal is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Molle - Huarangal → back through Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Sisicaya - Santa Rosa de Chontay → back through Segment Molle - Huarangal is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Molle - Huarangal → back through Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Quebrada Verde - Pachacamac → Ancient Reduction of Santiago Apostle of C is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.