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 529 km round trip from Marsella - roughly 11 h 03 in the saddle. The stops in between: Zone D, Zone F, Zone B and back through Zone F. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 F.
Zone F is one of the patches of the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, a World Heritage site spread across the steep green slopes of the Central and Western Cordilleras. This part lies in western Risaralda, around the towns of Santuario, Apía and La Celia, on hillsides so steep that you wonder how anyone stands upright to pick the beans. The answer is that people have been doing it for well over a century, by hand, on slopes where no machine could follow.
Read the complete Zone F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 159 km into the recorded legs you reach Zone F. Next is Zone B.
North of Pereira, where Risaralda meets Caldas, the coffee country climbs into higher, wilder ground above the deep canyon of the Cauca river. Quinchía, two kilometres from this point, is a hill town in Zone B of the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, the World Heritage Site inscribed in 2011. Here the coffee farms share the slopes with sugar cane for panela, plantain and forest, and the towns feel less visited than the classic stops further south.
Read the complete Zone B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone B, about halfway. Next is back through Zone F.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zone F write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zone F sits at 243 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 466 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 F is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Zone F → Zone B is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zone B → back through Zone F is 106 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zone F → back through Zone D is 97 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.