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 Cañar it runs 763 km to Cañar; allow about 15 h 34 of riding. It goes by way of Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca, Segment Cerro de Cojitambo, Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco and Segment San Antonio - San Antonio. 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.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 48 km this is Avenue of the Volcanoes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
High in the southern Andes of Ecuador, in the province of Cañar, a stretch of Inca road runs between the small towns of El Tambo and Honorato Vásquez, part of the Qhapaq Ñan World Heritage Site. The name El Tambo itself comes from the Inca word for a waystation, where travellers could rest and find supplies. This route was part of the great road that ran north from Cusco to Quito, and in this area it passed close to Ingapirca, the largest Inca site in Ecuador.
Read the complete Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez is where the day begins. 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.
Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca comes up about 100 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Cerro de Cojitambo.
Cojitambo is a rocky hill that rises abruptly above the valley of Azogues, in the province of Cañar, in the southern Andes of Ecuador. Its summit and slopes hold the remains of a Cañari and Inca settlement, with walls, terraces and stairways, and the Inca road ran past it, a segment of the Qhapaq Ñan listed by UNESCO. The Cañari were the people of this region before the Inca conquest, and they resisted fiercely, later siding with the Spanish against their Inca overlords. Today the hill is also a popular spot for rock climbing, with routes on its cliffs.
Read the complete Segment Cerro de Cojitambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 248 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Cerro de Cojitambo. 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, about halfway. Next is Segment San Antonio - San Antonio.
What I can say is that the point lies on the steep western slope of the Andes, in the country between the highlands near Cuenca and the coastal plain, with Naranjal the nearest real town, thirty-odd kilometres off on the lowlands.
Read the complete Segment San Antonio - San Antonio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment San Antonio - San Antonio sits at 187 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 465 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Cerro de Cojitambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 514 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo. Next is back through Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca, late in the day. Next is Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 763 km.
Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez → Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca → Segment Cerro de Cojitambo is 148 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment Cerro de Cojitambo → Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → Segment San Antonio - San Antonio is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment San Antonio - San Antonio → back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 89 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo → back through Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca is 149 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Subsection Achupallas - Ingapirca → Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez is 100 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.