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.
452 km from Quito to Quito, about 7 h 37 of riding. The stops in between: Segment Pimán - Caranqui, Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo and back through Segment Pimán - Caranqui. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
The old town of Quito was one of the first places to be listed by UNESCO, in 1978, alongside Kraków, and it is easy to see why. The historic centre is the largest and best preserved in Latin America, a tight grid of steep streets, colonial squares and church domes laid across the slopes below the Panecillo hill. The Spanish founded the city in 1534 on top of an Inca settlement, and over the next two centuries it became a centre of religious art, the so-called Quito School, in which indigenous and European traditions mixed in painting and sculpture.
Read the complete City of Quito write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
City of Quito is where the day begins. Next is Segment Pimán - Caranqui.
Ibarra sits in a high basin in northern Ecuador at around 2,200 metres, beneath the green slopes of Imbabura volcano, and the Inca road ran right through this valley. The Qhapaq Ñan, the Andean road system, stretched over 30,000 kilometres from Colombia to Chile and Argentina, linking the Inca empire, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2014. The segment between Pimán and Caranqui is one of the preserved sections in Ecuador, a stretch of old path through farmland and hills, with dry-stone edging in places and the kind of steady, sensible gradient Inca engineers favoured for runners and llama trains. Caranqui, now a suburb of Ibarra, was an important Inca centre, and local tradition claims it as the birthplace of Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor.
Read the complete Segment Pimán - Caranqui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Pimán - Caranqui comes up about 127 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 225 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo. Next is back through Segment Pimán - Caranqui.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Pimán - Caranqui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Pimán - Caranqui, late in the day. Next is City of Quito.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete City of Quito write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at City of Quito. That is the ride.
City of Quito → Segment Pimán - Caranqui is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment Pimán - Caranqui → Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 98 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo → back through Segment Pimán - Caranqui is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Pimán - Caranqui → City of Quito is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.