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.
A 378 km round trip from El Ángel - roughly 7 h 04 in the saddle. The stops in between: Segment Pulcas - Troya A, Inantaz and back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Ecuador into Colombia - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Northern Ecuador is where the Andes narrow and the country almost touches Colombia, and this stretch between Juan Montalvo and Cabuyal lies in the highland province of Carchi, not far from the little town of El Ángel. The area sits in the shadow of the páramo, the cold, treeless grassland above the forest line, where frailejones, the tall, silvery, furry-leaved plants, stand like crowds of strange sentinels. The El Ángel Ecological Reserve, a short way off, protects a large stretch of this habitat, and on a cloudy day it feels like another planet.
Read the complete Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal is where the day begins. Next is Segment Pulcas - Troya A.
Tulcán is the last Ecuadorian city before Colombia, a high, cold, windswept place at almost 3,000 metres, and it has one of the strangest sights in the Andes: a cemetery where cypress trees have been clipped into elaborate topiary, with figures, arches and geometric shapes, a tradition started by a local gardener in the 1930s. Near the city, the segment of Inca road between Pulcas and Troya is part of the Qhapaq Ñan World Heritage Site, marking the northern reaches of the Inca road system, which extended into what is now southern Colombia.
Read the complete Segment Pulcas - Troya A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Pulcas - Troya A comes up about 104 km into the recorded legs. Next is Inantaz.
Tangua and Yacuanquer are small highland towns in the department of Nariño, in the far south-west of Colombia, and Inantaz sits among their fields at roughly the latitude of the equator, on high ground above the valley of the Guáitara. This is the Andean altiplano of Nariño, a patchwork of potato, maize and pasture fields on steep slopes, with volcanoes rising behind. Galeras, the active volcano above Pasto, is not far to the north-east, and on a clear morning its cone dominates the view.
Read the complete Inantaz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 178 km into the recorded legs you reach Inantaz. Next is back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Pulcas - Troya A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A, late in the day. Next is Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal. That is the ride.
Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal → Segment Pulcas - Troya A is 104 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment Pulcas - Troya A → Inantaz is 74 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Inantaz → back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A → Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.