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.
It goes by way of Segment Lasana Norte, Segment Cupo-Topain and back through Segment Lasana Norte. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Inca built a road system, the Qhapaq Ñan, that ran for tens of thousands of kilometres through six modern countries, from Colombia to Chile and Argentina, and parts of it climb into the driest desert in the world. This segment lies in the Atacama region of northern Chile, on high ground at the edge of the salt basins and volcanoes, somewhere in the great arid country east of Calama and San Pedro de Atacama. The roadbed there is a modest affair, a cleared path edged with stones, sometimes with small waystations, enclosures and cairns, and its purpose was to link the capital Cusco with the far southern edge of the empire and to carry runners, llama caravans and soldiers.
Read the complete Segment Incahuasi Norte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Incahuasi Norte is where the day begins. Next is Segment Lasana Norte.
Lasana is a place where the desert makes a promise and keeps it. A few kilometres north of the oasis village of Chiu-Chiu, in northern Chile, the Loa river, the only river that crosses the Atacama, cuts a green gorge through the dry hills, with fields of alfalfa, willows and bright reeds, and on a rocky hill above the water stand the ruins of a pukará, a pre-Hispanic fortress of stone walls and terraces. The people who lived here, the Atacameño, lived in the oasis for centuries, farming maize, quinoa and potatoes, and later the Inca arrived and built roads, storehouses and administrative posts. This section of the Qhapaq Ñan, part of the six-nation UNESCO listing of 2014, passes through the area.
Read the complete Segment Lasana Norte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Lasana Norte comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Cupo-Topain.
In the far north of Chile, the Atacama Desert holds some of the driest ground on Earth, and the Loa river is the only stream that crosses it, carving a green line through the sand and rock. The road between Cupo and Topain follows a stretch of the Inca trail through this country, high in the Andean foothills above Calama and San Pedro de Atacama, a segment of the Qhapaq Nan, the Inca road network inscribed by UNESCO in 2014.
Read the complete Segment Cupo-Topain write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Cupo-Topain. Next is back through Segment Lasana Norte.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Lasana Norte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Lasana Norte, late in the day. Next is Segment Incahuasi Norte.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Incahuasi Norte write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Segment Incahuasi Norte. That is the ride.
Segment Incahuasi Norte → Segment Lasana Norte is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Lasana Norte → Segment Cupo-Topain is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Cupo-Topain → back through Segment Lasana Norte is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Lasana Norte → Segment Incahuasi Norte is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.