Mashpi Lodge review

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Mashpi Lodge is a secluded luxury lodge in the cloud forest of Ecuador. If you’re searching for an eco resort in South America with plenty of outdoor activity, wildlife, a sustainable backbone and a lush mountain setting, check out this Mashpi Lodge review.

**This Mashpi Lodge review won a 1st Place Gold Award in the North American Travel Media Awards. Whoohoo!

 

Mashpi Lodge review – an experience in the jungle

Puma tracks!

Our small group of hikers gathers around an indentation in the cloud forest trail. How Manolo, our guide from Mashpi Lodge, spotted it half-hidden under the foliage on a tree-encrusted slope is beyond me – then again, most things in the jungle of Ecuador are. I wipe a splotch of rainwater off my face, step past an elephant fern and peer closer. It’s a paw print all right, a pad and four toes, the marks asymmetrical. And it’s not old. I look around at the mist and the mountains, the tangle of strangler figs, iron palms and magnolias, and imagine a puma stealthily moving through. To me, the track is a symbol of the Chocó Forest itself: remote, mysterious and untamed.

 

“I want to see a puma,” says a woman from Alabama.

“No, you don’t,” says Andrea, a veteran hiker who has been to Mashpi Lodge before.

She has a point. Pumas are carnivorous cats with retractable claws, sharp teeth and the instincts of a hunter. Probably it’s better to get your wildlife thrills by seeing a trace-of-puma-in-the-soil than by having an authentic puma-chewing-your-neck experience.

Not that it’s likely to happen. Pumas are elusive, far more likely to be seen on one of Mashpi’s camera traps than in the flesh. And they don’t want anything to do with humans.

“We estimate there are five pumas living on the Mashpi Reserve,” Manolo says.

 

What you’ll see at Mashpi Lodge, Ecuador

At Mashpi Ecuador there are also turkey-sized birds called crested guans, capuchin monkeys and weasel-like tayras. There are ‘selfish trees’ that shed their skin to rid themselves of parasitic plants that suck the life right out of them. There are tarantulas, foxfire fungi that glow in the dark and translucent green frogs, which you’ll likely spot on a night hike, and charms (yes, that’s what they’re called) of hummingbirds you can eye at Mashpi’s Hummingbird Garden.

Once there were jaguars, but they’ve disappeared from this area of Ecuador’s northwest, a reminder of how essential it is for this area to be preserved.

 

Eco Lodge in Ecuador

On the forefront of cloud forest conservation is Mashpi Reserve, 1,200-hectare (3,000-acre) private reserve where 70% of the mountainous terrain is covered with primal forest, and species such as the Mashpi Frog and the Mashpi Magnolia exist nowhere else on earth. It’s part of the Choco bio-region that extends down from Panama through Colombia and into Northern Ecuador.

The man behind the reserve is Roque Sevilla, a former mayor of the city of Quito and avid environmentalist. He’s also the Chairman of Metropolitan Touring, one of Ecuador’s leading tour operators. He and a friend purchased this former logging site years ago to protect it from the rampant deforestation and gold mining that threatens this mineral-rich region.

 

Mashpi Lodge location

Mashpi Lodge is the sole hotel on the reserve. It’s only 100 km from Ecuador’s capital, Quito, as the crow flies, but it takes at least three hours on twisty mountain roads to get here (transportation is included from Quito). The secluded Ecuador lodge, built on the site of a former mill so that no existing trees needed to be disturbed, is a luxury outpost where experience, sustainable chic and adventure are served together on a hand-crafted platter.

 

What can you do at Mashpi?

While there are activities for the slothful (not to mention the occasional three-toed sloth) including a spa and an outdoor jacuzzi, an eco vacation at Mashpi Lodge is aimed at outdoor enthusiasts of all abilities who want to dive into experiences such as bird watching, night hikes, day hikes and dips in cooling waterfalls. There is also an open-air cable car called the Dragonfly and a two-person SkyBike that will have you pedalling 60 metres above the trees.

Frankly, it’s killing me.

 

Hiking in the cloud forest

This morning’s Healing Waterfall Hike is an advanced level hike that’s pushing my limits. I probably should have signed up for the Howler Monkey Trail instead. But challenging myself (especially when you see puma tracks!) is a good thing, although I’m still reserving the right to whine. Right now, as we descend into a rose bowl of a valley where the waterfall plunges into a natural pool, the challenge is not to collapse on a log instead of stripping down to my bathing suit and taking a dip.

“Go in. You’ll be glad,” Andrea said.

 

I don’t want to miss out so I peel off my rubber boots, rain poncho and sweaty T-shirt and pants. I put a toe in, then an ankle then immerse myself in the cool water. I skirt the chute then perch on a rock shelf behind the waterfall, the thundering sound of the falls drowning out the birdsong and croaking frog orchestra that has accompanied our hike so far.

I think of how many centuries the water has been splashing down here and how few people have seen it. I think of pumas and curious jungle inhabitants like the long-wattled umbrellabird that swings its wattle like a pendulum to attract a mate, and the irearthea deltoidea, a palm that can ‘walk’ towards light. With more than 11,000 plant, 900 bird and 350 amphibian species, the Chocó Region is one of the most bio-diverse places on earth.

It’s a world of strange wonders. I’m grateful to be able to witness it. Invigorated, I suddenly want to do more, see more and learn more, so bring on the advanced hikes. Andrea’s right. The Healing Waterfall is soul-reviving, sort of like being at Mashpi Lodge itself.