It seems incongruous that we are at the Equator but waking up to temperatures in the mid-40s F each morning. Funny what altitude can do.
We were picked up from the hotel at 8:00 this morning and bundled into 2 comfortable vans. I sat with the driver, which was great both for the views and for conversation during our 3 1/2 hour drive to Mashpi Lodge. It’s not too far from Quito, but the roads are progressively narrow as you go, ending in several miles of unpaved road followed by a two-tread track through the forest.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Just a few miles beyond the Quito city limits, we crossed the Equator. There is a monument with a yellow line marking The Spot, but we weren’t able to approach that spot for the obligatory photo as the ticket office wasn’t yet open. So our driver, Diego, kindly took photos for us. As the “real” Equator is a short distance away in the middle of the road, Greg recorded our progress across the imaginary line so that he could qualify for a geocache there.
Adjacent to the monument site was a striking, modern cantilevered building. It sits completely empty. Inspired by and modeled after the European Union, a group of 12 countries formed the Union of South American Nations in 2008, and chose the site near the Equator for their new Secretariat Headquarters. According to our driver, the Ecuadorian government withdrew from UNISUR in 2019, finding that the organization had grown too socialist. To date, more than half of the original founding nations have abandoned UNISUR.
We continued through multiple microclimate zones: high mountain, middle of the world (guess which one that is), tropical, cloud forest, high mountain forest, etc. It was arid in the immediate area of the Equator, with agave and other desert plants. But we quickly descended to a much more lush region. We passed people walking their fields, pushing corn seed into the ground with sticks. Other fields were neatly furrowed, apparently with horse drawn plows. We passed big stands of sugar cane growing on the hillsides. We passed through little villages that may or may not have a gas station, but definitely did not have a high school or a hospital.
Mashpi Lodge is a private forest reserve dedicated to sustainable tourism and forest preservation, Although only 60 miles and a few hours from Quito, it truly is another world.
The story of Mashpi began 21 years ago when Roque Sevilla, a former mayor of Quito, (the same former mayor who renovated the Casa Gangotena where we stayed the last two nights) purchased a former timber company in the Choco cloud forest. Fifteen percent of the trees had already been removed. Only 2 percent of the Choco ecosystem, which once stretched into Panama, remains.
Sevilla’s goal was to preserve the area, its wildlife and plants, from further deforestation and the threat of gold mining.
Determined to share the amazing biodiversity of the forest plants and wildlife, he built a lodge on the deforested site of a former sawmill. The location allowed construction of the lodge in the middle of the forest without destroying a single tree. The lodge’s architecture pulls you into the forest. This is the kind of place I’d drool over in National Geographic Magazine, or expect to see in Conde Nast Traveler. But never a place I imagined myself. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls provide every guest room with an unfettered view into the forest, either at ground level or into the canopy. The lead architect said that the idea “was to make a bubble of comfort in the middle of the jungle.” The goal - and then some - was achieved. There are 24 rooms designed to accommodate singles, couples or families. Up to 48 guests can stay; Diego told us there are currently 33 people staying here.
The restaurant at Mashpi. Organic food is locally and seasonally sourced from nearby farmers. There are vegan and standard menus for each meal, as well as sandwiches, a kids menu and several other options.
Situated at 960 meters (3,117 ft) in the western foothills of the Andes, Mashpi Lodge includes over 6,000 acres. Over 300 varieties of butterflies and moths, and 400 bird species (including 35 found only in this region) have been observed here.
There is a spa on site, and you can even get a massage at at the base of a nearby waterfall. I suppose one could simply relax and wallow in this paradise. But there is so much to see and do, and we are active travelers.
We love our room!
After a brief orientation and lunch, we (our Galapagos-bound party of 7) headed out for a walk with our assigned guide, Lizardo (a perfect name for a cloud forest naturalist!). I called it a placement test; I think we were being evaluated to see what level of activity would be appropriate for us. He fetched us rubber boots which will be ours for the duration of our visit, and we headed up the road.
We hadn’t even all left the entrance pavilion when Lizardo stopped us and pointed out a pretty red and tawny brown bird. He said he’d just spent a few days with previous guests who were desperate to see this bird but never did. It was a female collared trogan. We heard the male, but didn’t see him.
A couple hundred feet later, he spotted a toucan. Well, I wasn’t beside myself. But close.
We didn’t see another bird for the next 3 hours. But that was ok. I got my toucan!
We hiked a distance uphill and up the road, then on a short trail to the Sky Bike. This was what Greg was most looking forward to experiencing here, so it was a great way to start our stay. They have two of them, so 4 of us could ride at a time. The Sky Bike is suspended from a 665 ft cable 100 feet above the forest floor. It can carry two passengers. The one in front (me) gets to take photos, peer down into the trees, and watch clouds rolling down nearby mountains. The person in back (Greg) provides the muscle to propel the contraption across the valley. It is not geared like a racing bike; it takes a lot of revolutions to cover a short distance. So muscle, indeed. It was super cool!
Mashpi Lodge, from where we’d walked, is the green-roofed complex through the branches.
While the next group of people rode the Sky Bike (Greg went again, to help pedal one way for a solo traveler), I climbed the 85 feet Observation Tower.
The top is higher than the surrounding forest. Wonderful views in every direction.
That’s the lodge again in the lower right quadrant
We headed further up to the road to see a small waterfall. The path we turned onto was a dry river bed. During the rainy season, one can still walk up it, but there would be about a foot of water flowing around your rubber boots. During the dry season (nearing its end this month), the trickle of water runs underground. At the end of the trail by the waterfall, which was indeed small, Lizardo picked up several types or rocks. He explained their various origins and demonstrated seismic uplift. And then he did a little sacred ceremony with the waterfall and us, holding rocks we had chosen. His 109 year-old great-grandmother is a shaman, and he learned a lot about nature, natural medicine and spiritualism from her. And then we headed back to the lodge.
After returning and hosing off our muddy boots, we debriefed and chose activities for the remaining day and a half of our stay. We’ll have three activities tomorrow, with some nice breaks in between to rest, critter watch, eat, nap, etc.
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