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 Cuenca it runs 662 km to Cuenca; allow about 12 h 44 of riding. It goes by way of Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui, Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico and back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Incas built a road across the Andes that stretched for thousands of kilometres, linking Quito, Cusco and far beyond, and parts of it still survive in Ecuador. Llaviuco is a short surviving segment, listed by UNESCO as part of the Qhapaq Ñan, the great Andean road system. It lies inside Cajas National Park, in a landscape of high moorland, small lakes and cloud forest, above Cuenca. The stones of the old road are set in the ground by hand, and walking them gives a direct sense of how this empire moved people, messengers and llamas through the mountains.
Read the complete Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is where the day begins. Next is Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui.
Naranjal is the opposite of the high Andes. Down on the coastal plain of southern Ecuador, the air is hot and humid, the land is green and flat, and the farms grow bananas, cacao and, increasingly, shrimp in ponds along the estuaries. Yet the same Inca road system that crosses the mountains near Cuenca came down to this coast, and the segment at Botija Paqui is a stretch of it that UNESCO lists among the Qhapaq Ñan sites. The road was both a highway and a statement, linking distant provinces to the empire's heart.
Read the complete Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui comes up about 120 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico.
High in the Andes of Chimborazo province, south of Alausí, a narrow path of fitted stone winds across the páramo, the cold grassland that covers the Ecuadorian highlands above about 3,500 metres. It is part of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system, and this stretch belongs to the route that links the Inca site of Ingapirca with the highlands to the north. Before the Spanish arrived, the Inca built paved paths, stairways and waystations across this country, and parts of them are still in use, walked by herders and, in recent decades, by trekkers following the well-known route from Achupallas to Ingapirca.
Read the complete Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 331 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico. Next is back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui, late in the day. Next is Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco. That is the ride.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui is 120 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui → Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico is 211 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico → back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui is 207 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui → Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 124 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.