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.
572 km from Pachas to Pachas, about 13 h 19 of riding. The stops in between: Segment Cajay - Huaritambo, Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha and back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 4,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Qhapaq Ñan, the royal road of the Incas, linked an empire that stretched from what is now Colombia to Chile and Argentina, and in the highlands of Huánuco in central Peru one of its best-preserved stretches runs across the high puna between Tambo Chico and Taparaku.
Read the complete Segment Tambo Chico - Taparaku write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Segment Tambo Chico - Taparaku is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 168 km into the recorded legs. Next is Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha.
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.
about 291 km into the recorded legs you reach Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha. Next is back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Cajay - Huaritambo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo, late in the day. Next is Segment Tambo Chico - Taparaku.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Segment Tambo Chico - Taparaku write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Segment Tambo Chico - Taparaku. That is the ride.
Segment Tambo Chico - Taparaku → Segment Cajay - Huaritambo is 168 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment Cajay - Huaritambo → Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha is 123 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Segment Lomas de Huarin - Matacocha → back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo is 113 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Segment Cajay - Huaritambo → Segment Tambo Chico - Taparaku is 168 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.