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 San Gabriel it runs 231 km to San Gabriel; allow about 3 h of riding. The stops in between: Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo, Segment Pulcas - Troya A, San Pedro and Segment Rumichaca. 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 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 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.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Pulcas - Troya A. Next is San Pedro.
Ipiales is the last big Colombian town before Ecuador, and the high, cold plateau around it is some of the most dramatic farmland in the Andes. San Pedro lies a little north-west of the city, in a landscape of terraces, small farms and green slopes that tilt toward the canyon of the Guáitara river. The land is at about 2,900 metres and above, so mornings begin with frost on the grass and a hard blue sky.
Read the complete San Pedro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
San Pedro, about halfway. Next is Segment Rumichaca.
Rumichaca means stone bridge in Quechua, and the name is literal: here the Carchi River, which becomes the Guáitara on the Colombian side, flows beneath a natural arch of rock that has carried travellers between what are now Colombia and Ecuador for centuries. The Inca road passed this way, and a segment of the Qhapaq Ñan near the crossing is part of the World Heritage listing. Today the main border post between the two countries sits right here, with the modern bridge carrying the Pan-American Highway beside the old crossing.
Read the complete Segment Rumichaca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Rumichaca sits at 87 km, about halfway. Next is back through San Pedro.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete San Pedro write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through San Pedro comes up about 135 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 172 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A. 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.
back through Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo, 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 231 km.
Segment La Paz - Quebrada Tupala → Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo → Segment Pulcas - Troya A is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Pulcas - Troya A → San Pedro is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Pedro → Segment Rumichaca is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Rumichaca → back through San Pedro is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through San Pedro → back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A → back through Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo → Segment La Paz - Quebrada Tupala is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.