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.
From Llama it runs 1112 km to Llama; allow about 19 h 11 of riding. On the way it passes Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051, Huascarán National Park, Segment Cajay - Huaritambo and Segment Ayash - Taulli. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,200 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 44 km this is Peru Huascaran Circuit, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Inca road network, the Qhapaq Ñan, once linked an empire stretching from Colombia to Chile, and this segment, between Canrash and Torrepampa, runs through the high valleys of the Conchucos region in Ancash, east of the Cordillera Blanca. The Inca road here was a stone-paved trail, with steps, retaining walls and drainage channels, built for runners, soldiers and llama caravans rather than wheels. Much of it survives, winding along hillsides above the river valleys, and it is part of the transnational World Heritage listing for the Andean road system.
Read the complete Segment Canrash - Torrepampa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Canrash - Torrepampa is where the day begins. Next is Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051.
East of the Cordillera Blanca, in the region of Ancash known as the Conchucos, the Inca road system, the Qhapaq Ñan, crossed some of the most rugged terrain of its entire network. This segment, near the small town of Yauya, is part of the main road that ran north from Cusco to Quito through the high Andes, linking administrative centres such as Huánuco Pampa to the south. The Inca engineers laid stone paving, built steps on steep slopes, retaining walls and drainage channels, and stretches of the road can still be walked today, threading across high grasslands and past lakes at altitudes well over three and a half thousand metres. The whole network, which crosses six countries, became a World Heritage site in 2014.
Read the complete Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 comes up about 132 km into the recorded legs. Next is Huascarán National Park.
The Cordillera Blanca is the highest tropical mountain range on earth, and Huascarán National Park protects most of it: dozens of peaks over six thousand metres, hundreds of glaciers and glacial lakes, and high valleys of grass and rock. Huascarán itself, at 6,768 metres, is the highest mountain in Peru, a twin-summited giant of ice and snow that dominates the Callejón de Huaylas, the long valley of the Santa river below. The park was listed by UNESCO in 1985, and it is one of the great mountain landscapes of the world.
Read the complete Huascarán National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 289 km into the recorded legs you reach Huascarán National Park. Next is Segment Cajay - Huaritambo.
Few riders ever get this far into the Conchucos, the deep valleys on the eastern side of Peru's Cordillera Blanca, and that is half the reason to come. The label refers to a stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road network that ran for thousands of kilometres along the Andes, here crossing between the hamlet of Cajay and Huaritambo, whose name preserves the word tambo, the waystation where runners and travellers on imperial business could rest, eat and change loads. Parts of the paving, retaining walls and drainage channels still survive on slopes where it is hard to imagine anyone building anything at all.
Read the complete Segment Cajay - Huaritambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Cajay - Huaritambo, about halfway. Next is 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.
Read the complete Segment Ayash - Taulli write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Ayash - Taulli sits at 556 km, about halfway. Next is back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Cajay - Huaritambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo comes up about 688 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Huascarán National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Huascarán National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 823 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Huascarán National Park. Next is back through Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051, late in the day. Next is Segment Canrash - Torrepampa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Canrash - Torrepampa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 1112 km.
Segment Canrash - Torrepampa → Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 is 132 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 → Huascarán National Park is 157 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Huascarán National Park → Segment Cajay - Huaritambo is 135 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Cajay - Huaritambo → Segment Ayash - Taulli is 132 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Ayash - Taulli → back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo is 132 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo → back through Huascarán National Park is 135 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Huascarán National Park → back through Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 is 157 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Otutococha - QÑ-HH-051 → Segment Canrash - Torrepampa is 132 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.