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.
211 km from Tangua to Tangua, about 4 h 56 of riding. On the way it passes La Paz, Segment Pulcas - Troya A, Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo and back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A. 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.
The Andes of southern Colombia look folded rather than carved, a series of green ridges one behind another until the cloud hides them, and Guapuscal Bajo sits in the middle of that country. The name means lower Guapuscal, which implies an upper one higher up the slope, and the pair are small farming settlements in the municipality of Tangua, in the department of Nariño. There is no famous landmark to point to here. The interest lies in the day-to-day landscape, in small terraced plots of potatoes, onions, maize and pasture, in the kids in uniform walking the lanes and the smoke rising from kitchen stoves.
Read the complete Guapuscal Bajo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Guapuscal Bajo is where the day begins. Next is La Paz.
There are several places named La Paz in Colombia, and this one is a small settlement in the department of Nariño, near the town of Contadero, in the high country close to the Ecuadorian border. Nariño is the land of the Pastos, the indigenous people who farmed these cold uplands before the Inca arrived, and it lies on the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system that UNESCO listed in 2014. The road here follows the route that ran north from Quito toward Pasto, crossing deep canyons and high plateaus, and the old Inca line is part of the story of a landscape where cultures have met and mixed for centuries.
Read the complete La Paz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Paz comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Pulcas - Troya A.
Tulcán is the last Ecuadorian city before Colombia, a high, cold, windswept place at almost 3,000 metres, and it has one of the strangest sights in the Andes: a cemetery where cypress trees have been clipped into elaborate topiary, with figures, arches and geometric shapes, a tradition started by a local gardener in the 1930s. Near the city, the segment of Inca road between Pulcas and Troya is part of the Qhapaq Ñan World Heritage Site, marking the northern reaches of the Inca road system, which extended into what is now southern Colombia.
Read the complete Segment Pulcas - Troya A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 76 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Pulcas - Troya A. 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 Pulcas - Troya A.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Pulcas - Troya A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through La Paz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Paz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Paz comes up about 170 km into the recorded legs. Next is Guapuscal Bajo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Guapuscal Bajo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Guapuscal Bajo closes the day.
Guapuscal Bajo → La Paz is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Paz → Segment Pulcas - Troya A is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Pulcas - Troya A → Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo → back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A → back through La Paz is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Paz → Guapuscal Bajo is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.