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.
From Ipiales it runs 119 km to Ipiales; allow about 3 h 07 of riding. It goes by way of La Cofradía, Chitarran and back through La Cofradía. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The border between Colombia and Ecuador crosses a gorge, and for centuries people have crossed it on a natural stone bridge. Rumichaca, from Quechua for stone bridge, spans the Carchi river a few kilometres from Ipiales, and it was an Inca route long before the modern frontier existed. Today it is a busy international crossing, with a customs complex on the Colombian side and the city of Tulcán waiting on the Ecuadorian side, and the old rock arch sits in a small park among the buildings, easy to miss amid the lorries.
Read the complete Rumichaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rumichaca is where the day begins. Next is La Cofradía.
Down in Colombia's far south, close to the border with Ecuador, the Andes spread into a high, rumpled plateau of small fields stitched together by hedges, with deep canyons cut into it by rivers rushing towards the Pacific and the Amazon. La Cofradía lies here in the department of Nariño, between Gualmatán and Contadero, at the height of the old Inca road network, the Qhapaq Ñan, which reached this far north as the empire's frontier pushed into what is now Colombia. A few stretches of the road around here are part of the Qhapaq Ñan World Heritage site.
Read the complete La Cofradía write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Cofradía comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chitarran.
In the high Andes of southern Colombia, near the border with Ecuador, the Inca road network reached its northern limit. The Qhapaq Ñan, as the system is called, stretched from here to central Chile, and a few segments in the department of Nariño are part of the UNESCO listing of 2014. Chitarrán is one of these, a stretch of old road near the villages of Córdoba, Contadero and Iles, in a landscape of green hills, ravines and patchwork fields at altitudes of over two thousand metres.
Read the complete Chitarran write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Chitarran. Next is back through La Cofradía.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Cofradía write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Cofradía, late in the day. Next is Rumichaca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rumichaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Rumichaca. That is the ride.
Rumichaca → La Cofradía is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Cofradía → Chitarran is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chitarrán → back through La Cofradía is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Cofradía → Rumichaca is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.