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.
A 235 km round trip from San Gabriel - roughly 5 h 46 in the saddle. On the way it passes Segment Pulcas - Troya A, La Cofradía, Guapuscal Bajo and back through La Cofradía. 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 line favours views over speed.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Segment Pulcas - Troya A comes up about 30 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Cofradía.
Down in Colombia's far south, close to the border with Ecuador, the Andes spread into a high, rumpled plateau of small fields stitched together by hedges, with deep canyons cut into it by rivers rushing towards the Pacific and the Amazon. La Cofradía lies here in the department of Nariño, between Gualmatán and Contadero, at the height of the old Inca road network, the Qhapaq Ñan, which reached this far north as the empire's frontier pushed into what is now Colombia. A few stretches of the road around here are part of the Qhapaq Ñan World Heritage site.
Read the complete La Cofradía write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach La Cofradía. Next is Guapuscal Bajo.
The Andes of southern Colombia look folded rather than carved, a series of green ridges one behind another until the cloud hides them, and Guapuscal Bajo sits in the middle of that country. The name means lower Guapuscal, which implies an upper one higher up the slope, and the pair are small farming settlements in the municipality of Tangua, in the department of Nariño. There is no famous landmark to point to here. The interest lies in the day-to-day landscape, in small terraced plots of potatoes, onions, maize and pasture, in the kids in uniform walking the lanes and the smoke rising from kitchen stoves.
Read the complete Guapuscal Bajo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Guapuscal Bajo, about halfway. Next is back through La Cofradía.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Cofradía write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Cofradía sits at 115 km, about halfway. 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.
back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A comes up about 205 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo closes the day.
Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo → Segment Pulcas - Troya A is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Pulcas - Troya A → La Cofradía is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Cofradía → Guapuscal Bajo is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Guapuscal Bajo → back through La Cofradía is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Cofradía → back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Pulcas - Troya A → Segment Mariscal Sucre - El Tambo is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.