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 Santa María it runs 580 km to Santa María; allow about 10 h 40 of riding. The stops in between: Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana, Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad d. It crosses from Argentina into Paraguay - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Red earth is the first thing you notice in Misiones, the thin finger of northeastern Argentina squeezed between Paraguay and Brazil. The soil is the colour of a brick, the forest is subtropical, and the roads cut through it leave long scarlet stripes on the verge. Santa María la Mayor, a small town of under two thousand, lies in this country, and its main attraction is a ruin the forest nearly swallowed.
Read the complete Santa María la Mayor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Santa María la Mayor is where the day begins. Next is Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana.
Deep in the red earth of Misiones, in the north-eastern tip of Argentina, the forest is slowly reclaiming a mission town. Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana was one of the Jesuit reductions, settlements where Jesuit priests gathered the Guaraní people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, partly to protect them from slave raiders and partly to convert them. The towns were laid out around a central plaza with a church, a school, workshops and houses, and the Guaraní built, carved and played music in a form that mixed European baroque with their own skills. Santa Ana, founded in the 1630s, is among the lesser known, and much of it lies in ruin under trees and vines.
Read the complete Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana comes up about 85 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de.
In the south-east of Paraguay, near the Parana river and the Argentine border, a field of red earth, tall trees and golden sandstone walls marks the site of La Santisima Trinidad de Parana, one of the largest of the Jesuit missions built among the Guarani people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The ruins are about nine kilometres from Hohenau, a small town of just over five thousand people, and not far from Trinidad village and Jesus, where another mission stands.
Read the complete Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 170 km into the recorded legs you reach Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de. Next is Nuestra Señora de Loreto.
The ruins of Loreto lie in a clearing in the forest of Misiones, in the north-east tip of Argentina, and the forest is slowly winning. Strangler figs and giant roots creep over the red sandstone walls of what was once a church, and the grass grows over the plaza where thousands of Guarani people once lived. Loreto was one of the Jesuit missions, the reducciones, that the Society of Jesus founded in the early seventeenth century in the lands of the Guarani, in what is now Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. This one was moved to its present site in 1632 after raids by slave hunters from Brazil.
Read the complete Nuestra Señora de Loreto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nuestra Señora de Loreto, about halfway. Next is Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad d.
The Jesuit mission of Santisima Trinidad de Parana lies on a low hill in southern Paraguay, in the department of Itapua, and the stone ruins that remain are some of the most atmospheric in South America. It was founded in 1706 as one of the reducciones, the mission towns in which Jesuit priests gathered the Guarani people into settled communities, and it grew into one of the largest. At its height, several thousand people lived here around a vast central plaza, with a great church, a cemetery, a school, workshops, a college and rows of houses. The red sandstone church, begun in the 1740s, was decorated with carved figures, including angels playing musical instruments, and parts of its facade and pulpit remain.
Read the complete Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad d write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad d sits at 201 km, about halfway. Next is back through Nuestra Señora de Loreto.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nuestra Señora de Loreto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nuestra Señora de Loreto comes up about 351 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 411 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de. Next is back through Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana, late in the day. Next is Santa María la Mayor.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Santa María la Mayor write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 580 km.
Santa María la Mayor → Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana → Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de → Nuestra Señora de Loreto is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nuestra Señora de Loreto → Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad d is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad d → back through Nuestra Señora de Loreto is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nuestra Señora de Loreto → back through Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Jesuit Mission of La Santísima Trinidad de → back through Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Nuestra Señora de Santa Ana → Santa María la Mayor is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.