Segment Ayash - Taulli and Segment Huánuco Pampa - Huaricashash
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
247 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 46
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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 Huachis it runs 247 km to Huachis; allow about 4 h 46 of riding. It goes by way of Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata, Segment Huánuco Pampa - Huaricashash and back through Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Segment Ayash - Taulli
East of the Cordillera Blanca, the Andes break into a jumble of high plateaus and deep valleys draining toward the Marañón and the Amazon, and the Inca road ran through this country on its way from Cusco to Quito. The Ayash to Taulli segment is a stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan in the highlands of Huánuco, near the town of Llata, part of the UNESCO-listed Andean road system. It runs through the puna, the high grassland above the tree line, where the wind blows cold and the views stretch for miles over ridges and valleys. In places, the original road survives, with stone paving, retaining walls, steps and drainage channels, and walking a section of it is the best way to understand how the Incas moved people and goods across this vertical landscape.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Segment Ayash - Taulli is where the day begins. Next is Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata.
2. Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata
The Qhapaq Ñan, the great road network of the Inca Empire, ran for thousands of kilometres along the Andes, linking the capital Cusco with the far corners of an empire that stretched from Colombia to Chile. In the department of Huánuco, in central Peru, one of its best preserved sections crosses the high puna between the administrative centre of Huánuco Pampa and the valleys to the north, and the segment between Taparaku and the Tambo de Llata is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2014.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Huánuco Pampa - Huaricashash.
3. Segment Huánuco Pampa - Huaricashash
Three and a half thousand metres up, on the cold grass plateau of the Peruvian Andes, the Incas built a city that was never meant to be a home. Huánuco Pampa was an administrative centre, a stop on the great road between Cusco and Quito, with a vast central plaza, an ushnu platform from which officials presided over ceremonies, rows of long halls for visitors and hundreds of storehouses lined up on the hillsides. The people who staffed it were moved in from elsewhere, and the labour they owed was paid in cloth, maize and llama wool that fed the road and the army.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Segment Ayash - Taulli. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Segment Ayash - Taulli to Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata
Segment Ayash - Taulli → Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata to Segment Huánuco Pampa - Huaricashash
Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata → Segment Huánuco Pampa - Huaricashash is 108 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Huánuco Pampa - Huaricashash to back through Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata
Segment Huánuco Pampa - Huaricashash → back through Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata to Segment Ayash - Taulli
back through Segment Taparaku - Tambo de Llata → Segment Ayash - Taulli is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.