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 Cusipata it runs 428 km to Cusipata; allow about 7 h 51 of riding. The stops in between: Segment Chiwuanquiri, Segment Pancca-Buena Vista and back through Segment Chiwuanquiri. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
South of Cusco, the Vilcanota River runs through a broad, fertile valley flanked by high mountains, and along it ran one of the most important stretches of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system that linked an empire stretching from Ecuador to Chile. The route from Cusco to Lake Titicaca followed this valley, and sections of the original road, some paved with stone, some cut into the hillside, still survive. The segment between Cusipata and Santa Cruz de Occobamba went onto the World Heritage list in 2014 as one strand of the Qhapaq Ñan.
Read the complete Segment Cusipata-Santa Cruz de Occobamba N write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Cusipata-Santa Cruz de Occobamba N is where the day begins. Next is Segment Chiwuanquiri.
The Qhapaq Ñan, the great road system of the Inca Empire, stretched over thirty thousand kilometres across the Andes, linking Cusco with the farthest corners of the empire, from southern Colombia to central Chile. In 2014, UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site across six countries, and the listing includes hundreds of individual segments, each a fragment of the network. The Chiwuanquiri segment lies in the high province of Canas, south of Cusco, near the village of Cahuanuyo, on the high puna at around four thousand metres. Here, the old road crosses open grassland, with stone paving, retaining walls and drainage channels still visible in places, and it is a moving experience to walk on a road built more than five centuries ago.
Read the complete Segment Chiwuanquiri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Chiwuanquiri comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Pancca-Buena Vista.
A section of the old Inca road, the Qhapaq Ñan, runs through the area, part of the huge network that the Incas built to link Cusco with the far reaches of their empire, now recognised as a World Heritage site. In places the road survives as a paved or stone-edged track that crosses pasture and peat, a reminder of how far a runner or llama train once travelled.
Read the complete Segment Pancca-Buena Vista write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 211 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Pancca-Buena Vista. Next is back through Segment Chiwuanquiri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Chiwuanquiri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Chiwuanquiri, late in the day. Next is Segment Cusipata-Santa Cruz de Occobamba N.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Cusipata-Santa Cruz de Occobamba N write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Segment Cusipata-Santa Cruz de Occobamba N. That is the ride.
Segment Cusipata-Santa Cruz de Occobamba N → Segment Chiwuanquiri is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Chiwuanquiri → Segment Pancca-Buena Vista is 145 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment Pancca-Buena Vista → back through Segment Chiwuanquiri is 151 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Segment Chiwuanquiri → Segment Cusipata-Santa Cruz de Occobamba N is 66 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.