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 El Ángel it runs 430 km to El Ángel; allow about 9 h 28 of riding. On the way it passes Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo, Rumichaca, Rosal de Chapal 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. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
High in the Andes of northern Ecuador, between El Ángel and Pimampiro in the province of Carchi, a stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan, the great road network of the Inca Empire, crosses the páramo, the high grassland that blankets the mountains above the tree line. The Inca built more than thirty thousand kilometres of roads across their empire, from Colombia to Chile and Argentina, linking towns, temples and storehouses, and this northern section, near the empire's frontier, was among the last to be built before the Spanish conquest. The Qhapaq Ñan was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2014 as a transnational site shared by six countries, with hundreds of individual segments, including this one.
Read the complete Segment Loma Virgen - Chiquito write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Loma Virgen - Chiquito 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 69 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 121 km into the recorded legs you reach Rumichaca. 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, 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 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rosal de Chapal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rosal de Chapal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rosal de Chapal comes up about 257 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 307 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Rumichaca. 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 Loma Virgen - Chiquito.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Loma Virgen - Chiquito write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 430 km.
Segment Loma Virgen - Chiquito → Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 69 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 → Segment Rumichaca is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Rumichaca → back through Rosal de Chapal is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 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 → Segment Loma Virgen - Chiquito is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.