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.
620 km from Naranjal to Naranjal, about 12 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco, Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca and back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 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 comes up about 119 km into the recorded legs. Next is Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca.
Achupallas is a high village in Chimborazo province, about sixteen kilometres from Alausí, and the walking trail named after it, which runs south towards Ingapirca, is one of Ecuador's best-known treks. For motorcyclists the point is the landscape and the road beside it: bare páramo at over three thousand metres, with the volcanic cone of Sangay on a clear day, and little else but sheep, lupins and the odd shepherd's hut.
Read the complete Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 311 km into the recorded legs you reach Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca. Next is back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco, 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.
Back at Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui. That is the ride.
Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui → Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 119 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca is 192 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca → back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 190 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui is 119 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.