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 300 km round trip from Puerres - roughly 5 h 30 in the saddle. It goes by way of Inantaz, Segment Rumichaca, Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo and back through Segment Rumichaca. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Colombia into Ecuador - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
In the high Andes of southern Colombia, near the border with Ecuador, the Inca road network reached its northern limit. The Qhapaq Ñan, as the system is called, stretched from here to central Chile, and a few segments in the department of Nariño are part of the UNESCO listing of 2014. Chitarrán is one of these, a stretch of old road near the villages of Córdoba, Contadero and Iles, in a landscape of green hills, ravines and patchwork fields at altitudes of over two thousand metres.
Read the complete Chitarran write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chitarrán is where the day begins. Next is Inantaz.
Tangua and Yacuanquer are small highland towns in the department of Nariño, in the far south-west of Colombia, and Inantaz sits among their fields at roughly the latitude of the equator, on high ground above the valley of the Guáitara. This is the Andean altiplano of Nariño, a patchwork of potato, maize and pasture fields on steep slopes, with volcanoes rising behind. Galeras, the active volcano above Pasto, is not far to the north-east, and on a clear morning its cone dominates the view.
Read the complete Inantaz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Inantaz comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Rumichaca.
Rumichaca means stone bridge in Quechua, and the name is literal: here the Carchi River, which becomes the Guáitara on the Colombian side, flows beneath a natural arch of rock that has carried travellers between what are now Colombia and Ecuador for centuries. The Inca road passed this way, and a segment of the Qhapaq Ñan near the crossing is part of the World Heritage listing. Today the main border post between the two countries sits right here, with the modern bridge carrying the Pan-American Highway beside the old crossing.
Read the complete Segment Rumichaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 107 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Rumichaca. Next is Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo.
Up in Carchi, Ecuador's northernmost province, a short stretch of old stone-edged road near San Gabriel is all that is left visible of something enormous. The Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system, ran from what is now southern Colombia to central Chile and Argentina, tens of thousands of kilometres of paths, stairways and causeways that tied the empire together. The segment between Mariscal Sucre and El Tambo is one of the pieces listed by UNESCO in 2014 as part of that network. A tambo was a waystation, a place where runners and travellers could rest and resupply, so the name itself tells you what stood here.
Read the complete Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo, about halfway. Next is back through Segment Rumichaca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Rumichaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Rumichaca sits at 167 km, about halfway. Next is back through Inantaz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Inantaz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Inantaz comes up about 255 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chitarran.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chitarran write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chitarrán closes the day.
Chitarrán → Inantaz is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Inantaz → Segment Rumichaca is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Rumichaca → Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo → back through Segment Rumichaca is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Rumichaca → back through Inantaz is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Inantaz → Chitarran is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.