Ecuador: Much (More) Ado About the Mainland

Congratulations, Quito! Ecuador’s tourism board recently announced that its capital is an official finalist in the Swiss-based New 7 Wonders Cities contest. The current list of finalists comprises 28 cities (including Chicago, Seoul, Beirut, and Barcelona) winnowed from an initial pool of more than 300. Voters from around the world will select the winning seven wonders, which will be unveiled on December 7, 2014. You can vote for your seven favorites at new7wonders.com/en/cities.

No doubt, the news was well received in a country that’s currently calling to visitors and developing its tourism infrastructure with such vigor (read: new eco-lodges, boutique hotels, international airport, and deluxe train journeys, to name a few).

I had the pleasure to see this progress firsthand while exploring much of continental Ecuador – from Quito to the cloud forest to the coast – last November after an initial trip there afforded only a quick overnight in Guayaquil en route to the Galápagos Islands. What I found: a diversity of indigenous cultures, brilliant biodiversity, a revitalized culinary scene, and passionate ambassadors (everyone from newly repatriated chefs to ardent environmentalists) all eager to show off and share the virtues of their country. Read more in my story “Much Ado About the Mainland,” published recently in the November/December issue of Virtuoso Life.

Ecuador: Change Is in the Air

Paddling along the Chone River estuary near Ecuador’s northern coast, my local guide, Carlos, captains our canoe toward the seemingly impenetrable thickets of mangrove that comprise Isla Corazon. In time, however, a tiny portal reveals itself, and we slip instantly from open estuary to a narrow canal that wends its way through swampy, sylvan cloisters.

We glide by elegant, great white egrets and beneath thuggish turkey vultures conspiring in the canopy. Yellow warblers take sudden flight, flickering their reflections against the milky grey waters like lightning. Motionless crabs stare out from mangrove branches like shy shut-ins. All the while, ubiquitous mangroves surround, multiplying, it seems, even as we pass. New shoots breach the water’s surface, and fresh legs stretch from established trees to expand the forest’s ever increasing empire.

It wasn’t always like this. Less than two decades ago, corporate shrimp farms destroyed approximately half of the mangrove’s territory here. In 1996, though, bolstered by government efforts to conserve the country’s wild lands, local citizens organized and banished the shrimp farmers. Since then, says Carlos, the mangrove swamps have resurrected.

The significance? Each mangrove leaf creates six seconds of oxygen. Fallen leaves also provide food for shrimp, oysters, and fish, which in turn feed Carlos’ family and community of Puerto Portovelo. The resurgent swamps – and the bird species they harbor – also attract tourists and thus revenue. It’s clear that to local citizens like Carlos, the mangroves are not just their lungs, but their livelihood and life.

In time, the canal delivers us to an outlet on the estuary erupting with avian activity. Both the sky above and mangroves bordering the bay brim with frigate birds, and each one, it seems, has something to say. Everywhere there is swarming, aerial dancing, and a controlled chaos of wings and chatter.

¿Cuántos? I ask Carlos, who seems to have anticipated my question. The current colony of frigates is some 25,000 strong, he says, up from around 500 in the year 2000 – proof positive that not only is change possible, it can also be prolific.

Read my full story, “Much Ado About the Mainland,” in the November 2013 issue of Virtuoso Life magazine. Also: Check out my gallery of photos from Mashpi to Quito to the coast.

Ecuador: Sky High in the Center of the World

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.