UPDATE | May 1, 2013: For more on Mashpi Lodge, check out my review, “Ahead in the Clouds,” written for the May issue of Virtuoso Life magazine.
My head’s in the clouds, I confess, but once again it occurs to me how good life can be. True: Such an outlook comes easy, perched in the canopy of the Andean cloud forest and surrounded by a symphony of birdsong. Nevertheless: Shouldn’t travel be transcendent? Does it not have the power to transform?
Two hundred feet above the jungle floor, I’m seated in the “sky bike” at Mashpi Lodge, a new eco-resort situated in the wilds of Ecuador some 100 miles northwest of Quito. The start of my nine-day trip designed by the Ministry of Tourism to showcase the country’s mainland, my stay at Mashpi has reminded me of the metamorphosis that travel can bring.
Some 80 percent of the lodge’s employees, for example, come from local communities. Built with sustainable materials, Mashpi also resides on land previously owned by a logging company, and its formation has led to the protection of more than 40,000 acres of forest. Under the guidance of resident biologist, Carlos Morochz, the region’s flora and fauna are now being preserved. Already Carlos and his colleagues have identified new species of frogs and discovered a number of heretofore-unknown leks, or mating grounds, for manakin, cock-of-the-rock, and umbrella birds.
Of course, such efforts are the boon of travelers, too. Here in this eco-playground I’ve had the good fortune to immerse myself in revitalizing waterfalls; take night hikes through the jungle; linger in the lodge’s butterfly and hummingbird gardens; and indulge in an alfresco chocolate degustation with chef David Barriga as toucans flitted by in the background. All this and now an aerial bicycle ride that places everything – the lodge, the land, and this verdant, vibrant life that surrounds – in perfect perspective.