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 209 km round trip from Cuenca - roughly 5 h 01 in the saddle. The stops in between: Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco, Segment San Antonio - San Antonio and back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,800 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 19 km this is Avenue of the Volcanoes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
High in the southern Ecuadorian Andes, at about 2,500 metres, Cuenca was founded by the Spanish in 1557 on a grid plan, on the site of an Inca city called Tomebamba, which was itself built over an earlier Cañari settlement. The colonial centre, with its cobbled streets, whitewashed houses with wooden balconies, churches and plazas, was inscribed by UNESCO in 1999, and the blue-tiled domes of the new cathedral are the city's landmark. The Tomebamba river runs through the city, lined with parks and old houses perched on the bank.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d is where the day begins. Next is Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco.
The Incas built a road across the Andes that stretched for thousands of kilometres, linking Quito, Cusco and far beyond, and parts of it still survive in Ecuador. Llaviuco is a short surviving segment, listed by UNESCO as part of the Qhapaq Ñan, the great Andean road system. It lies inside Cajas National Park, in a landscape of high moorland, small lakes and cloud forest, above Cuenca. The stones of the old road are set in the ground by hand, and walking them gives a direct sense of how this empire moved people, messengers and llamas through the mountains.
Read the complete Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment San Antonio - San Antonio.
What I can say is that the point lies on the steep western slope of the Andes, in the country between the highlands near Cuenca and the coastal plain, with Naranjal the nearest real town, thirty-odd kilometres off on the lowlands.
Read the complete Segment San Antonio - San Antonio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment San Antonio - San Antonio. Next is back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco, late in the day. Next is Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d. That is the ride.
Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d → Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → Segment San Antonio - San Antonio is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment San Antonio - San Antonio → back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 89 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.