Avenue of the Volcanoes · part 3

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Cuenca

   Cuenca stands at about two and a half thousand metres in the southern Andes of Ecuador, where the air is thin and cool, and the rivers run down from the high moorland of El Cajas toward the Amazon basin and the Pacific. It is the third city of the country, a place of red-tiled roofs, whitewashed walls and wrought-iron balconies that was granted World Heritage status in 1999 for its well-preserved colonial grid, laid out in the sixteenth century on the site of an Inca settlement. The Tomebamba river runs along the southern edge of the old town, and its banks are lined with old houses with balconies hanging over the water.

   Read the complete Cuenca write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cuenca is where the day begins. Next is back through Alausi.

2. 2. back through Alausi

   Alausí is a hillside town in the Ecuadorian Andes with a railway platform at its heart, and the railway is the reason most people have heard of it. The town perches at about 2,300 metres in the province of Chimborazo, and a few blocks from the main square the Nariz del Diablo, the Devil's Nose, drops away. This is a sheer rock spur that the railway engineers of the early twentieth century could cross only by a system of zigzag switchbacks, in which the train descends by running forward onto one track, reversing down the next, and so on. It was part of the line between Guayaquil and Quito, an immense undertaking, and a symbol of national unity. Today a tourist train runs from Alausí down the switchbacks and back.

   Read the complete Alausi write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Alausi comes up about 168 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Riobamba.

3. 3. back through Riobamba

   At roughly 2,750 metres above sea level, Riobamba is a high-altitude city that wears its height lightly. It sits in a wide basin in the central Andes of Ecuador, surrounded by volcanoes, and on clear mornings Chimborazo, the tallest mountain in the country at about 6,263 metres, stands in the distance with its snowy summit catching the first light. Because the Earth bulges at the equator, Chimborazo's summit is the farthest point on the planet's surface from its centre, which makes it a tempting claim for the title of the world's highest mountain.

   Read the complete Riobamba write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 263 km.