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.
251 km from Ipiales to Ipiales, about 5 h 47 of riding. It goes by way of Chitarran, Inantaz, Rosal de Chapal and back through Inantaz. 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 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.
Chitarrán comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Inantaz.
Tangua and Yacuanquer are small highland towns in the department of Nariño, in the far south-west of Colombia, and Inantaz sits among their fields at roughly the latitude of the equator, on high ground above the valley of the Guáitara. This is the Andean altiplano of Nariño, a patchwork of potato, maize and pasture fields on steep slopes, with volcanoes rising behind. Galeras, the active volcano above Pasto, is not far to the north-east, and on a clear morning its cone dominates the view.
Read the complete Inantaz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Inantaz. Next is Rosal de Chapal.
High in the department of Nariño, in Colombia's far southwest, the land folds into deep canyons cut by the Guáitara River, and the old Inca road, the Qhapaq Ñan, threads along the slopes. Rosal de Chapal is one of the surviving fragments of that road on the Colombian side, a stretch of track near the small towns of Funes, Iles and Contadero. The Qhapaq Ñan, a network of roads that tied the Inca empire together from present day Colombia to Chile and Argentina, was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2014, and Nariño holds its northernmost sections.
Read the complete Rosal de Chapal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rosal de Chapal, about halfway. Next is back through Inantaz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Inantaz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Inantaz sits at 121 km, about halfway. Next is back through Chitarran.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chitarran write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chitarran comes up about 211 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Rumichaca closes the day.
Rumichaca → Chitarran is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chitarrán → Inantaz is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Inantaz → Rosal de Chapal is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rosal de Chapal → back through Inantaz is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Inantaz → back through Chitarran is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chitarran → Rumichaca is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.