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.
The stops in between: Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui, Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha and back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 3,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Segment Paredones - Paredones is where the day begins. Next is Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui.
Naranjal is the opposite of the high Andes. Down on the coastal plain of southern Ecuador, the air is hot and humid, the land is green and flat, and the farms grow bananas, cacao and, increasingly, shrimp in ponds along the estuaries. Yet the same Inca road system that crosses the mountains near Cuenca came down to this coast, and the segment at Botija Paqui is a stretch of it that UNESCO lists among the Qhapaq Ñan sites. The road was both a highway and a statement, linking distant provinces to the empire's heart.
Read the complete Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 162 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha. Next is back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui, late in the day. Next is 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 at Segment Paredones - Paredones. That is the ride.
Segment Paredones - Paredones → Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui → Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha is 109 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Segment Santa Martha - Santa Martha → back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui is 109 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Segment Botija Paqui - Botija Paqui → Segment Paredones - Paredones is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.