A Green Pilgrimage: Mashpi Lodge, In the Cloud Forest of Ecuador

Metropolitan Touring

The multi-lane highway from Quito, the Capital of Ecuador, 9500 feet above sea level, eventually became a bumpy road, th…

Mashpi Lodge.

It is now a luxury retreat, built neither as a luxury lodge nor a wellness retreat, but originally as a botanical research center. There, it allowed naturalists, botanists, entomologists, and arborists to move into the cloud forest to study rainforest species, both extant and emerging, with new species being discovered only here. The three we saw were the Glass Frog, a small translucent amphibian, the Mashpi Magnolia, a flowering tree with white magnolias, and the Lepanthes mashpica orchid.  We were told, by the young lead Botanist there, that he and his colleagues sensed there were many other species in the forests yet unknown, but as he said with both happiness and gravity, “We will discover!”

Eventually, it was thought that non-scientists should enjoy this green quiet also. Thus, here we were.

The Mashpi forest is home to close to 500 species of birds -including 36 endemic species — found only here.  In these forests, 32 hummingbird species have been identified also. Located close to the lodge, there are unique, sensory-driven experiences that allow Mashpi guests to become part of the forest, by becoming one with it.  “How can you tell the dancer from the dance?” the Irish poet Yeats asked. We thought of this sensuous paradox as we were allowed on two steel contraptions that allowed us to have drone-like views of the forest.  With both the SkyBike and the DragonFly, we became, if even for a short time, one with the forest as we moved above the trees, then below, always hooked to steel cables.