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 Alausí it runs 548 km to Alausí; allow about 11 h 22 of riding. The stops in between: Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez, Segment Cerro de Cojitambo, Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco and Segment San Antonio - San Antonio. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 48 km this is Avenue of the Volcanoes, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico is where the day begins. Next is Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez.
High in the southern Andes of Ecuador, in the province of Cañar, a stretch of Inca road runs between the small towns of El Tambo and Honorato Vásquez, part of the Qhapaq Ñan World Heritage Site. The name El Tambo itself comes from the Inca word for a waystation, where travellers could rest and find supplies. This route was part of the great road that ran north from Cusco to Quito, and in this area it passed close to Ingapirca, the largest Inca site in Ecuador.
Read the complete Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez comes up about 90 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Cerro de Cojitambo.
Cojitambo is a rocky hill that rises abruptly above the valley of Azogues, in the province of Cañar, in the southern Andes of Ecuador. Its summit and slopes hold the remains of a Cañari and Inca settlement, with walls, terraces and stairways, and the Inca road ran past it, a segment of the Qhapaq Ñan listed by UNESCO. The Cañari were the people of this region before the Inca conquest, and they resisted fiercely, later siding with the Spanish against their Inca overlords. Today the hill is also a popular spot for rock climbing, with routes on its cliffs.
Read the complete Segment Cerro de Cojitambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Cerro de Cojitambo. Next is Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco.
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, about halfway. 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 sits at 161 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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 through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco comes up about 357 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Cerro de Cojitambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 406 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo. Next is back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez, late in the day. Next is Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 548 km.
Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico → Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez → Segment Cerro de Cojitambo is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Cerro de Cojitambo → Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → Segment San Antonio - San Antonio is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment San Antonio - San Antonio → back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco is 89 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Llaviuco - Llaviuco → back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Cerro de Cojitambo → back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment El Tambo - Honorato Vásquez → Segment Palcañán Grande - Palcañán Chico is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.