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.
510 km from Marsella to Marsella, about 11 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: Zone D, Zone C, Zone A and back through Zone C. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,600 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 about 63 km this is Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The hills around Marsella, in Risaralda, are steep enough that you wonder how anyone harvests coffee on them at all, and the answer is by hand, bean by bean, on slopes where the pickers lean into the hillside. This is the heart of Colombia's coffee region, the Eje Cafetero, and the cultural landscape of coffee growing here was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2011. The listing covers farms, towns and the traditions of a culture built around a crop that has shaped the country's history and identity.
Read the complete Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia is where the day begins. Next is Zone D.
Armenia, Colombia, is not the best-known part of the country, but the hills around it are the heart of the Eje Cafetero, the coffee axis. The Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site made up of several zones, and Zone D lies in Quindío, in the high green country close to Armenia, Circasia and Montenegro. This is where the coffee farms cling to steep slopes, shaded by plantain and tall guadua bamboo, and the farmhouses are painted in bright colours with carved balconies.
Read the complete Zone D write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone D comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zone C.
Zone C of the Coffee Cultural Landscape lies north of Armenia, in the steeper, higher country of Caldas, near Filadelfia and Aranzazu. This is the same UNESCO landscape, but it feels different from the Quindío end: the slopes are bigger, the farms more scattered, and the volcano Nevado del Ruiz, which looms to the east, often stands out against the sky on a clear morning. The eruption of that volcano in 1985 caused one of Colombia's worst disasters, and its presence remains part of local life.
Read the complete Zone C write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 205 km into the recorded legs you reach Zone C. Next is Zone A.
Colombian coffee does not grow on big estates. It grows on steep green slopes in small farms, where families pick the red cherries by hand and dry them on patios by the house, and the cultural landscape that has grown from this way of life, in the central Andes, was listed by UNESCO in 2011. The region is known as the Eje Cafetero, the coffee axis, and the Zone A on our list is one of the main areas of the property, a mix of hills, valleys and villages of small farms and old towns.
Read the complete Zone A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone A, about halfway. Next is back through Zone C.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zone C write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zone C sits at 255 km, about halfway. Next is back through Zone D.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zone D write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zone D comes up about 447 km into the recorded legs. Next is Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia closes the day.
Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia → Zone D is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zone D → Zone C is 142 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Zone C → Zone A is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zone A → back through Zone C is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zone C → back through Zone D is 130 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Zone D → Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.