The city of Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world. It has captured the imaginations of explorers for decades, and we are no exceptions. I (Daisy) have been dreaming of this place for many years. To actually be here, preparing to embark on our next big cycling adventure, is a dream come true.
Total travel time to get here from our door was about 26 hours. Miraculously, every bag and every bike box arrived undamaged. We spent our first day wandering the town and putting the bicycles together. Ushuaia is cold, windy, wet and full of art.
The city is perched on the edge of the Beagle Channel, surrounded by mountains. It was so dreary we didn’t see them until the fourth day, but they are stunning!
We discovered that both girls love empanadas and most particularly they love “submarinos,” which is the local approach to hot chocolate. To make one you start with steaming hot milk, then melt in a big chunk of dark chocolate before drinking it all down!
I learned the hard way that to buy groceries with a credit card you must show your passport here. Alice and I headed to the store with just a credit card and a few US dollars. At check out I was shocked when they asked for my passport! I tried to pay with the dollars, but they were all too ragged to be accepted. After a long back and forth, I learned that a *photo* of my passport would be good enough and luckily I had one! It was quite a scene.
Here are a few more photos of our time here. Tomorrow we start our journey on bicycles!
The St. Christopher shipwreck. Apparently this ship was assisting another in 1957 and ended up stuck ever since.The wind is famous here and the huge flags were almost always flappingThis ‘end of the world’ sign is an iconic destination for cyclists…and of course we found the playgrounds. This one had some particularly cool swings.
For our fall break we started in Walsenburg and rode three days up to Cuchara Pass and another day back down. Besides testing our gear, there were three things we wanted to go up against for practice: a strong headwind, a mountain pass, and gravel roads. All three of these will meet us in Tierra del Fuego. Luckily for us we got to try all three – at once! After the first day we weren’t sure we could do it, but by the end of the third day we were much more confident.
Day 1, Lathrop State Park to La Veta (15 miles, 900′ climbing, dirt): We camped overnight at Lathrop State Park and left our car there at the visitor’s center. We got on the bikes and headed out after a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes. The first day’s ride took us across gravel roads to La Veta. We enjoyed the low-traffic road as it wound past deer, prairie dogs, pronghorn, cattle, and even a herd of horses that galloped across the road in front of us.
However, we had to work hard the whole time to fight the headwind. It was 20-30 mph! Tierra del Fuego is also known for very strong headwinds. How fitting!
As we came into town we checked the weather. The overnight forecast was 30-40 mph winds with 75(+) mph gusts. We abandoned our plans to camp (at the for sale Sammie’s Campground) and got a room in the La Veta Inn instead.
Day 2, La Veta to Cuchara (12 miles, 1400′ climbing, pavement): Whoa was it windy! We waited until after 10 AM to get on the road so the winds would die down. Today we travelled on pavement, but the headwinds continued. It was up, up, up the whole way. We passed several different rock formations. There are hundreds of rock walls that radiate away from the Spanish Peaks. The yellow aspens added some unexpected color to our late October ride.
Riding past the “Devil’s Steps”
Cuchara is a cute “town” that is simply a block-long collection of stores for tourists. We stayed in a B&B and the kids had a blast playing in the attic-like second bedroom. There was a playground in town, but very few kids.
Day 3, Chuchara to the pass and back to La Veta (6 miles and 1500′ up, 18 miles back down): The B&B’s breakfast was great – we all ate a lot. I (Jason) had an extra (third) muffin on the way out the door and that really powered me up the pass. It was 6 more miles to the top of the paved road. The headwind was not so strong, and the road got steeper. At the top we took our obligatory photo with the pass sign, then continued up a little further (above 10,000′!) on a dirt road to a wildflower overlook.
Snacktime is serious
We decided to head back down to prepare our lunch in the park in Cuchara while A and H played on the playground. Needless to say, it was a lot faster to go down than up! After a family conference we decided to go back to the La Veta Inn to spend the night in our “favorite room.” We realized that we were carrying our full set of gear on the bikes – including tent and pads and bags – but didn’t camp at all.
Day 4, La Veta to Lathrop State Park (15 miles mostly down on dirt): We took the same gravel road back down to the park. Somehow the wind shifted so we could have a little bit more headwind before our trip was complete. Our car was waiting for us and we ate lunch at the picnic tables in the park. We packed up and drove west to enjoy our first visit to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Gear check = Success!
The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage route that is in fact many routes. We did the Via de la Plata, which was historically a trade route. We started in Sevilla, a city in southern Spain, and ended in Santiago, in the northwest corner. It took us 24 days total to travel 1007 km (627 miles). A ‘typical’ day was about 50 km (31 miles). The scenery was pretty and varied, and the Spanish people were friendly. There were plentiful services for cyclists, and drivers were very careful with us. We would not hesitate to recommend this route to other families or casual riders. It was quite different than our usual preference for camping in remote areas, as we didn’t even bring a tent! It was also a bit of a logistical challenge, but Spain has quite a bit of infrastructure built up around cyclists and hikers doing exactly this route.
The Philtrons and their bikes on the final morning of the Spain tour
We used a guidebook for this route to keep us on low-traffic roads and trails. It included on and off-road directions and elevation profiles. The recommended days were usually too long for our family, but that didn’t matter. We used the website gronze.com to find lodging. Typically we booked rooms/hotels 1-2 days in advance. We stayed in communal bunkroom hostels a few times in the early part of the trip when there were few hikers on the route. As the hikers started to be more common we switched to apartments/hotels/rural houses. Hikers always have preference in the bunkrooms, which is fair.
It took days of research to get the logistics for this plan sorted out. I summarize how we did it here so that you don’t have to!
Logistical considerations getting to our start-point:
FLY: We flew into Madrid using United Card benefits to check the bikes, disassembled and in two airline-regulation-size suitcases each. We each carried on one or two panniers.
Regional train: The Madrid airport is connected to the high-speed rail terminal by regional train. We had to transfer once and the trains had about three steps up/down to get to from/to the platform. It was a challenge to move all the bags but we did it.
High-speed train: We took a 3-hour high speed train to Sevilla, which allowed us to carry our bikes and bags right on without issue. Honestly, the high-speed rail network was incredible.
Uber to hostel: A ten-minute UberXL carried us to our backpacker hostel, where we spent a couple nights to allow time to assemble the bikes.
Bike Bag Shipping: Here is the magic – Spain has a program (Pilgrim Pac) that allows folks to ship their bags to the end of this route, where they are stored safely until you arrive. We shipped the bike boxes from Sevilla to Santiago for about $40 each, including 30-day storage. The default is 15-days so you do need to add time
All of our gear ready for a plane ride. Or a train ride. Or an Uber ride.
Logistical considerations getting back from our endpoint:
Retrieving the bike boxes: As promised, our bags were waiting for us in downtown Santiago. We walked in, presented our ID and tracking numbers, and walked out with all our stuff.
Disassembling the bikes: We carefully chose an AirBnb at the end of the trip that provided us space to get the bikes back in their boxes. We had hoped to stay in a hostel, but many in Santiago don’t allow children.
High-Speed train to Madrid: Our high-speed train to Madrid was on time and efficient and accepted our bicycles, but it was stressful. Apparently the rules for bikes in boxes are contradictory for the train we chose and we needed special approval from a supervisor.
Regional train to hotel for overnight stay.
UberXL to airport: As before, the airline took our bike boxes without issue or charges.
Jason’s bike at about 50% disassembly
Weather and Timing:
We had two days of rain and the rest was sunny and warm/hot.
You do not want to do this route in the summer. It gets dangerously hot. We started cycling mid-may and were done the first week of June. Even with our early departure (the girls skipped the last two weeks of school), we endured several hot days before entering the mountains. I would not do this trip in June-July-August.
Thoughts from our family on this route:
We stayed inside every night (no camping gear!) at a mix of private room hostels, shared bunk bed rooms in albergues (pilgrim bunkrooms), hotels, rural houses, and rented apartments. Calling ahead was important to ensure space for bicycles – especially if you’re on tandems. The guidebook often recommended staying in larger cities, but we found that we instead enjoyed the smaller towns. Our favorites were Zamora, which is highest on our list to come back to, and a village called Laza.
We struggled with the siesta – which in Spain lasts from 3 PM to 6 PM (about). If you arrive to town in the afternoon you may find that the only thing open are the bars. Nearly all businesses (grocery stores pharmacies, etc) close. Sundays were particularly challenging, when even the bars might be closed and nearly nothing opens in the evenings.
We loved the scenery, the quiet roads, and the historical towns. The girls noticed how the houses changed as we moved through different regions. Despite the comfort and lightweight setup that staying inside allowed, we all missed camping.
Thoughts about cycletouring with two elementary-aged kids
1. These kids are way tougher/more resilient than anyone on the outside could guess. They almost never complained about cycling stuff. They do need real rest days every 3-4 riding days. When asked what they would say to someone who thought 6 years old was too young for a bicycle tour… H replied ‘Who says that – I’ve been on more than 4 bike tours!’.
2. Entertaining them on the bikes can be a beautiful family experience or a patience-testing trial, depending on the terrain. When the riding was flat and easy we had so much fun singing and talking. When the hills were steep and the grown-ups were working as hard as possible it was so difficult.
3. I’ll never get used to having a six-year old poke my butt with her little fingers while I’m trying to just ride.
4. Piloting a tandem with a small child on the back also requires constant upper body strength. They wiggle! They point! We have to be constantly working to compensate and keep the bike upright. I had several days with very sore shoulders and arms, despite doing a lot of upper body work before this trip.
5. We ended up letting the kids have almost unlimited screen time in the evenings when it was an option. We asked a lot of them all day, and they wanted to just truly veg in the evenings. Every evening there was an obligatory family walk through town to see some sights, but besides that we let them read and play games.
6. Being an adult on a family bicycle tour is HARD. We have stuff for four people, and have to organize for four people, but only two people are really involved in the effort. The kids aren’t jumping up and down to pack, or organize, or cook, or choose food. They aren’t interested in doing their hair or brushing their teeth, or loading the bikes. We do it all. We pedal it all. The girls *do* help pedal, but their effort doesn’t quite equal their weight. It’s always easier to get up a big hill if the girls are off the bikes.
7. IT’S ALL WORTH IT. We are so grateful we had the health, the money, the time, and the audacity to do this trip.
Big sky riding on a warm sunny day
Riding through a villageExcellent riding on a quiet dirt roadRiding across a Roman bridge in a modern Spanish cityPushing and walking and persisting on a steep hill in the rain.
