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 360 km round trip from Cuenca - roughly 6 h 51 in the saddle. The stops in between: Segment Cerro de Cojitambo, Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez, Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca and back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,750 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 29 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 Cerro de Cojitambo.
Cojitambo is a rocky hill that rises abruptly above the valley of Azogues, in the province of Cañar, in the southern Andes of Ecuador. Its summit and slopes hold the remains of a Cañari and Inca settlement, with walls, terraces and stairways, and the Inca road ran past it, a segment of the Qhapaq Ñan listed by UNESCO. The Cañari were the people of this region before the Inca conquest, and they resisted fiercely, later siding with the Spanish against their Inca overlords. Today the hill is also a popular spot for rock climbing, with routes on its cliffs.
Read the complete Segment Cerro de Cojitambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Cerro de Cojitambo comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez.
High in the southern Andes of Ecuador, in the province of Cañar, a stretch of Inca road runs between the small towns of El Tambo and Honorato Vásquez, part of the Qhapaq Ñan World Heritage Site. The name El Tambo itself comes from the Inca word for a waystation, where travellers could rest and find supplies. This route was part of the great road that ran north from Cusco to Quito, and in this area it passed close to Ingapirca, the largest Inca site in Ecuador.
Read the complete Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez. Next is Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca.
Achupallas is a high village in Chimborazo province, about sixteen kilometres from Alausí, and the walking trail named after it, which runs south towards Ingapirca, is one of Ecuador's best-known treks. For motorcyclists the point is the landscape and the road beside it: bare páramo at over three thousand metres, with the volcanic cone of Sangay on a clear day, and little else but sheep, lupins and the odd shepherd's hut.
Read the complete Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca, about halfway. Next is back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Cerro de Cojitambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo comes up about 329 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d closes the day.
Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d → Segment Cerro de Cojitambo is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Cerro de Cojitambo → Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez → Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca → back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez → back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo → Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos d is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.