Segment Kallamarka-Apacheta and Segment Desaguadero Titijoni
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
126 km
Riding-time estimate
2 h 42
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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 126 km round trip from Tiahuanaco - roughly 2 h 42 in the saddle. On the way it passes Segment Tiwanacu, Segment Desaguadero Titijoni and back through Segment Tiwanacu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Segment Kallamarka-Apacheta
On the Bolivian altiplano, a few dozen kilometres west of La Paz, the old Inca road runs across a plateau lifted nearly four thousand metres into the sky. This segment of the Qhapaq Ñan is part of the road network that UNESCO recognised in 2014, and it passes near Tiwanaku, the great pre-Inca city whose carved gateways and monoliths stand on the flat plain close to Lake Titicaca. An apacheta is a cairn of stones left by travellers at a pass or a high point, each stone a small offering to the mountain spirits, the apus, and the habit has not died, so you will still find them piled by the roadside, sometimes with coca leaves or a bottle of alcohol beside.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Segment Kallamarka-Apacheta is where the day begins. Next is Segment Tiwanacu.
2. Segment Tiwanacu
Tiwanaku stands on the Altiplano of Bolivia, at about 3,850 metres, in a bare, cold plain ringed by far mountains. The road you take there passes through the little town of Tiahuanaco, where the colonial church is built partly of stone taken from the ancient ruins, and where the central square holds some of the carved monoliths. This segment is part of the Qhapaq Nan, the Inca road system, which linked the empire from Colombia to Chile and was inscribed by UNESCO in 2014.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Segment Tiwanacu comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Desaguadero Titijoni.
3. Segment Desaguadero Titijoni
At around 3,800 metres above sea level the air on the Altiplano is thin enough to make lacing your boots feel like exercise, and Desaguadero is a place where you should take everything at half speed. The town sits on the border between Peru and Bolivia at the southern end of Lake Titicaca, where the Desaguadero river drains the lake toward the south. The segment of old road near Titijoni is part of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road network listed by UNESCO in 2014, which ran along the shores of Titicaca on its way between Cusco and the southern provinces.