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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Cuenca it runs 447 km to Cuenca; allow about 7 h 42 of riding. On the way it passes Segment San Antonio - San Antonio, Segment Paredones - Paredones, Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha and back through Segment Paredones - Paredones. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 San Antonio - San Antonio.
What I can say is that the point lies on the steep western slope of the Andes, in the country between the highlands near Cuenca and the coastal plain, with Naranjal the nearest real town, thirty-odd kilometres off on the lowlands.
Read the complete Segment San Antonio - San Antonio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment San Antonio - San Antonio comes up about 95 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Paredones - Paredones.
West of Cuenca the Andes fall away towards the Pacific in one of the most dramatic descents on the continent, from the cold lakes and páramo of the Cajas massif to the hot banana plantations of the coastal plain. Paredones, a small Inca site in the Molleturo area on this western flank, takes its name from the stone walls, paredones, that survive among the grass: remains of buildings, enclosures and a stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan that crossed these mountains between the highlands and the coast. It is part of the Andean road system inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2014.
Read the complete Segment Paredones - Paredones write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 158 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Paredones - Paredones. Next is Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha.
If Mamamag is the top of the climb, Santa Martha is the other end of the story: the foothills where the Andes tip into the coastal plain, thirty-odd kilometres from Naranjal and a long way from anywhere that feels like highland. The air is thicker and wetter here, and the vegetation changes from tussock grass to ferns, bamboo and the dense green of the western slopes.
Read the complete Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha, about halfway. Next is back through Segment Paredones - Paredones.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Paredones - Paredones write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Paredones - Paredones sits at 299 km, about halfway. Next is back through Segment San Antonio - San Antonio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment San Antonio - San Antonio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment San Antonio - San Antonio comes up about 357 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco closes the day.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → Segment San Antonio - San Antonio is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment San Antonio - San Antonio → Segment Paredones - Paredones is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Paredones - Paredones → Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha → back through Segment Paredones - Paredones is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Paredones - Paredones → back through Segment San Antonio - San Antonio is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment San Antonio - San Antonio → Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.