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.
468 km from Quinchía to Quinchía, about 5 h of riding. On the way it passes Zone C, Cultural Landscape of Colombia, Zone D and back through Cultural Landscape of Colombia. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,600 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 67 km this is Colombia Coffee Triangle Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
North of Pereira, where Risaralda meets Caldas, the coffee country climbs into higher, wilder ground above the deep canyon of the Cauca river. Quinchía, two kilometres from this point, is a hill town in Zone B of the Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia, the World Heritage Site inscribed in 2011. Here the coffee farms share the slopes with sugar cane for panela, plantain and forest, and the towns feel less visited than the classic stops further south.
Read the complete Zone B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone B is where the day begins. Next is Zone C.
Zone C of the Coffee Cultural Landscape lies north of Armenia, in the steeper, higher country of Caldas, near Filadelfia and Aranzazu. This is the same UNESCO landscape, but it feels different from the Quindío end: the slopes are bigger, the farms more scattered, and the volcano Nevado del Ruiz, which looms to the east, often stands out against the sky on a clear morning. The eruption of that volcano in 1985 caused one of Colombia's worst disasters, and its presence remains part of local life.
Read the complete Zone C write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone C comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
The hills around Marsella, in Risaralda, are steep enough that you wonder how anyone harvests coffee on them at all, and the answer is by hand, bean by bean, on slopes where the pickers lean into the hillside. This is the heart of Colombia's coffee region, the Eje Cafetero, and the cultural landscape of coffee growing here was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2011. The listing covers farms, towns and the traditions of a culture built around a crop that has shaped the country's history and identity.
Read the complete Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 156 km into the recorded legs you reach Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia. Next is Zone D.
Armenia, Colombia, is not the best-known part of the country, but the hills around it are the heart of the Eje Cafetero, the coffee axis. The Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site made up of several zones, and Zone D lies in Quindío, in the high green country close to Armenia, Circasia and Montenegro. This is where the coffee farms cling to steep slopes, shaded by plantain and tall guadua bamboo, and the farmhouses are painted in bright colours with carved balconies.
Read the complete Zone D write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone D, about halfway. Next is back through Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia sits at 193 km, about halfway. Next is back through Zone C.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zone C write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zone C comes up about 398 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zone B.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zone B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zone B closes the day.
Zone B → Zone C is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zone C → Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia → Zone D is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zone D → back through Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia → back through Zone C is 111 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Zone C → Zone B is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.