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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
1380 km from Abancay to Abancay, about 23 h 48 of riding. It goes by way of Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao, Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata, Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu and Segment Vitkus-Abra Choqetakarpu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 51 km this is Sacred Valley Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Apurímac is a Quechua word that means the speaker of the gods, or the great speaker, and it is the name of the river whose canyon you cross, deep and loud, on any road between Cusco and Abancay. The region around Abancay is one of the least visited in the southern Andes, and I find that its character is mostly vertical: valleys at 2,000 metres with sugar cane and avocados, then switchbacks climbing into puna grassland above 4,000 metres where the wind is cold and the llamas look at you without interest. The abra in the title, Spanish for a mountain pass, is one of those high crossings, and the Inca road, the Qhapaq Ñan, runs over or near it.
Read the complete Segment Abra Choqetakarpu-Toroyoq write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Abra Choqetakarpu-Toroyoq is where the day begins. Next is Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao.
Choquequirao is sometimes called the sister of Machu Picchu, and you can tell why when you see the photographs: a ridge of white-walled terraces and plazas, perched above a canyon, with snow peaks looming in the background. It is also a good deal harder to reach. The ruins sit at around three thousand metres on the far side of the Apurímac valley, a day's hard walk from the end of the road, and a fraction of the visitors who crowd Machu Picchu make the journey. The name is usually translated as cradle of gold.
Read the complete Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao comes up about 216 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata.
This is a stretch of the Inca road, and it is made for feet. The Qhapaq Ñan was the great road system of the Inca empire, more than thirty thousand kilometres of stone causeways, steps, bridges and tunnels linking the Pacific coast to the high Andes and from Colombia down to Chile and Argentina. UNESCO listed the network across six countries in 2014. The segment between Mach'ay and Samarinapata runs through the mountains of the Cusco region, west of Machu Picchu, and its name tells the story. A mach'ay is a cave, and samarina is a place to rest, so the route marks shelters and stopping points for travellers and for the chasquis, the relay runners who carried messages and goods at great speed across the empire.
Read the complete Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 302 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata. Next is Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is the most famous place in the Andes, and it is also one of the hardest to reach for a rider, because no road goes there. The sanctuary is about thirty kilometres from Ollantaytambo, on a ridge nearly twenty-four hundred metres above the sea, above a loop of the Urubamba river, with cloud forest on every side. The citadel is reached only by train or by walking, and then by a bus up a zigzag road from the town of Aguas Calientes, at the foot of the mountain.
Read the complete Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, about halfway. Next is Segment Vitkus-Abra Choqetakarpu.
Manco Inca fled here with his army in 1537, after his great siege of Cusco failed, and Vitcos became the capital of what was left of the Inca Empire. For thirty-five years, in the jungle-covered mountains of Vilcabama, the last independent Incas held out against the Spaniards, raiding Spanish roads, sheltering rebels and keeping alive the old religion. In 1572 the Spaniards finally reached the inner refuge and captured Tupac Amaru, the last Inca, who was taken to Cusco and beheaded in the main square.
Read the complete Segment Vitkus-Abra Choqetakarpu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Vitkus-Abra Choqetakarpu sits at 690 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu comes up about 895 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 1085 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata. Next is back through Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao, late in the day. Next is Segment Abra Choqetakarpu-Toroyoq.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Abra Choqetakarpu-Toroyoq write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 1380 km.
Segment Abra Choqetakarpu-Toroyoq → Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao is 216 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao → Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata → Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu is 190 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu → Segment Vitkus-Abra Choqetakarpu is 201 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Vitkus-Abra Choqetakarpu → back through Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu is 201 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu → back through Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata is 190 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Inca Mach’ay-Samarinapata → back through Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Kutacoca-Choquequirao → Segment Abra Choqetakarpu-Toroyoq is 216 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.