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.
A 569 km round trip from Llama - roughly 9 h 47 in the saddle. The stops in between: Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre, Segment Canrash - Torrepampa, Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana and Segment Cajay - Huaritambo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Few places in Peru feel as far from Lima as the eastern side of the Cordillera Blanca, in the Conchucos country of the Ancash region. The Inca road here was a mountain track, climbing from the valley of the Marañón up to the high grasslands, and the segment from Lomas de Huarin to Matacocha, part of the UNESCO Qhapaq Ñan listing of 2014, runs through a landscape of steep green slopes, terraced fields, small hamlets and a sky that feels very close. The towns are Pomabamba, a market town known for hot springs, and Yauya, a smaller place in a side valley, with farms and a busy Sunday market.
Read the complete Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha is where the day begins. Next is Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre.
High on the eastern side of the Cordillera Blanca, in the Conchucos valleys of Ancash, a stretch of the old Inca road crosses grassy ridges between Cotocancha and the heights known as Alturas de Torre. This is part of the Qhapaq Ñan, the vast Andean road network that tied the Inca empire together, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2014. The main trunk here ran north from Huánuco Pampa towards Cajamarca, and in places you can still see stone paving, retaining walls, drainage channels and steps.
Read the complete Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Canrash - Torrepampa.
The Inca road network, the Qhapaq Ñan, once linked an empire stretching from Colombia to Chile, and this segment, between Canrash and Torrepampa, runs through the high valleys of the Conchucos region in Ancash, east of the Cordillera Blanca. The Inca road here was a stone-paved trail, with steps, retaining walls and drainage channels, built for runners, soldiers and llama caravans rather than wheels. Much of it survives, winding along hillsides above the river valleys, and it is part of the transnational World Heritage listing for the Andean road system.
Read the complete Segment Canrash - Torrepampa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 126 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Canrash - Torrepampa. Next is Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana.
Five hundred years ago a runner could have passed this spot carrying a knotted quipu or a message for the governor in Huánuco Pampa, handing it on at the next post in a relay that crossed the Andes faster than a horse. This short stretch, catalogued as segment QÑ-HH-051 near Inca Misana, is a fragment of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road system that linked an empire from southern Colombia to central Chile. The whole network was listed by UNESCO in 2014 across six countries, and what you find on the ground here in Ancash is often modest: a line of stone paving, a retaining wall, a set of steps cut into a slope, running across high grassland with the mountains standing all around.
Read the complete Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana, about halfway. Next is Segment Cajay - Huaritambo.
Few riders ever get this far into the Conchucos, the deep valleys on the eastern side of Peru's Cordillera Blanca, and that is half the reason to come. The label refers to a stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca road network that ran for thousands of kilometres along the Andes, here crossing between the hamlet of Cajay and Huaritambo, whose name preserves the word tambo, the waystation where runners and travellers on imperial business could rest, eat and change loads. Parts of the paving, retaining walls and drainage channels still survive on slopes where it is hard to imagine anyone building anything at all.
Read the complete Segment Cajay - Huaritambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Cajay - Huaritambo sits at 285 km, about halfway. Next is back through Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana comes up about 374 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Segment Canrash - Torrepampa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Canrash - Torrepampa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 448 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Segment Canrash - Torrepampa. Next is back through Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre, late in the day. Next is Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 569 km.
Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha → Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre → Segment Canrash - Torrepampa is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Canrash - Torrepampa → Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana → Segment Cajay - Huaritambo is 87 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Cajay - Huaritambo → back through Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana is 87 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment QÑ-HH-051 - Inca Misana → back through Segment Canrash - Torrepampa is 74 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Canrash - Torrepampa → back through Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Cotocancha - Alturas de Torre → Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.