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 Naranjal it runs 580 km to Naranjal; allow about 13 h 01 of riding. It goes by way of Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha, Segment Mamamag - Mamamag, Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena and Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Naranjal is the opposite of the high Andes. Down on the coastal plain of southern Ecuador, the air is hot and humid, the land is green and flat, and the farms grow bananas, cacao and, increasingly, shrimp in ponds along the estuaries. Yet the same Inca road system that crosses the mountains near Cuenca came down to this coast, and the segment at Botija Paqui is a stretch of it that UNESCO lists among the Qhapaq Ñan sites. The road was both a highway and a statement, linking distant provinces to the empire's heart.
Read the complete Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui is where the day begins. Next is Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha.
If Mamamag is the top of the climb, Santa Martha is the other end of the story: the foothills where the Andes tip into the coastal plain, thirty-odd kilometres from Naranjal and a long way from anywhere that feels like highland. The air is thicker and wetter here, and the vegetation changes from tussock grass to ferns, bamboo and the dense green of the western slopes.
Read the complete Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Mamamag - Mamamag.
West of Cuenca the Andes lift quickly, and the Mamamag label sits on the edge of that rise, about twenty-four kilometres from the city, where the cultivated valleys give way to cold, open páramo. The nearest real town is Cuenca itself, a university city of cobbled colonial streets at roughly two and a half thousand metres, and anything you need, from fuel to a decent soup, you should sort out there before you climb.
Read the complete Segment Mamamag - Mamamag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 184 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Mamamag - Mamamag. Next is Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena.
The Inca road in Ecuador came down from the high Andes to the coast, and in the south the line passes through hills above the lowlands near Naranjal, a banana and cacao town in the province of Guayas. This stretch, called Hierba Buena in the listing, belongs to the Qhapaq Ñan system, which UNESCO recognised in 2014, and it sits on the western slopes where the cold páramo drops through cloud forest into warm, humid foothills. The segment is paired with another called Botija Paqui, which suggests a path used by travellers and traders linking highland and coast.
Read the complete Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena, about halfway. Next is Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco.
The Incas built a road across the Andes that stretched for thousands of kilometres, linking Quito, Cusco and far beyond, and parts of it still survive in Ecuador. Llaviuco is a short surviving segment, listed by UNESCO as part of the Qhapaq Ñan, the great Andean road system. It lies inside Cajas National Park, in a landscape of high moorland, small lakes and cloud forest, above Cuenca. The stones of the old road are set in the ground by hand, and walking them gives a direct sense of how this empire moved people, messengers and llamas through the mountains.
Read the complete Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco sits at 157 km, about halfway. Next is back through Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena comes up about 349 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Segment Mamamag - Mamamag.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Mamamag - Mamamag write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 398 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Segment Mamamag - Mamamag. Next is back through Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha, late in the day. Next is Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 580 km.
Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui → Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha → Segment Mamamag - Mamamag is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Mamamag - Mamamag → Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena → Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → back through Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Hierba Buena-Hierba Buena → back through Segment Mamamag - Mamamag is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Mamamag - Mamamag → back through Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha is 103 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha → Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.