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 538 km round trip from San Gabriel - roughly 10 h 43 in the saddle. On the way it passes Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal, Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo, Rumichaca and Rosal de Chapal. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Ecuador into Colombia - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
The province of Carchi, at the northern tip of Ecuador, is high, green and cool, a land of potato fields, dairy farms and páramo, the high-altitude grassland of the Andes. The Inca road ran through here on its way north, and the segment between La Paz and the Quebrada Tupala is one of the Ecuadorian sections of the Qhapaq Ñan listed by UNESCO. Near the village of La Paz, a natural cave in the rock, the Gruta de La Paz, has been turned into a shrine to the Virgin, with a church inside the cave, and it draws pilgrims from across the region.
Read the complete Segment La Paz - Quebrada Tupala write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment La Paz - Quebrada Tupala is where the day begins. Next is Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal.
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 comes up about 86 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo.
Up in Carchi, Ecuador's northernmost province, a short stretch of old stone-edged road near San Gabriel is all that is left visible of something enormous. The Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system, ran from what is now southern Colombia to central Chile and Argentina, tens of thousands of kilometres of paths, stairways and causeways that tied the empire together. The segment between Mariscal Sucre and El Tambo is one of the pieces listed by UNESCO in 2014 as part of that network. A tambo was a waystation, a place where runners and travellers could rest and resupply, so the name itself tells you what stood here.
Read the complete Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 167 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo. Next is Rumichaca.
The border between Colombia and Ecuador crosses a gorge, and for centuries people have crossed it on a natural stone bridge. Rumichaca, from Quechua for stone bridge, spans the Carchi river a few kilometres from Ipiales, and it was an Inca route long before the modern frontier existed. Today it is a busy international crossing, with a customs complex on the Colombian side and the city of Tulcán waiting on the Ecuadorian side, and the old rock arch sits in a small park among the buildings, easy to miss amid the lorries.
Read the complete Rumichaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rumichaca, about halfway. Next is Rosal de Chapal.
High in the department of Nariño, in Colombia's far southwest, the land folds into deep canyons cut by the Guáitara River, and the old Inca road, the Qhapaq Ñan, threads along the slopes. Rosal de Chapal is one of the surviving fragments of that road on the Colombian side, a stretch of track near the small towns of Funes, Iles and Contadero. The Qhapaq Ñan, a network of roads that tied the Inca empire together from present day Colombia to Chile and Argentina, was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2014, and Nariño holds its northernmost sections.
Read the complete Rosal de Chapal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rosal de Chapal sits at 166 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rumichaca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rumichaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rumichaca comes up about 315 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 369 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo. Next is back through 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 through Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal, late in the day. Next is Segment La Paz - Quebrada Tupala.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment La Paz - Quebrada Tupala write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 538 km.
Segment La Paz - Quebrada Tupala → Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal → Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo → Rumichaca is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rumichaca → Rosal de Chapal is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rosal de Chapal → back through Rumichaca is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rumichaca → back through Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo → back through Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal is 107 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Juan Montalvo - Cabuyal → Segment La Paz - Quebrada Tupala is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.