Cyanide Millipede, Cloud Forest Lodge in Ecuador Reserve
Hiking the rainforest in northwest Ecuador, an area packed with some of the world’s highest concentrations of plant and animal life in the world, I’m wondering if there are any dangerous creatures on the trail, poisonous snakes perhaps.
“The biggest threat here is something falling on your head,” says David Yunes, the guide for our small group.
It’s true. We hear frequent cracking sounds coming from the treetops, followed by the tumbling whoosh of a piece of the forest, dropping out of the canopy. Before the day is over, a 50-foot cecropia will crash down the steep hillside just next to the trail, instigating a minor mudslide.
The 2,600-acre Mashpi Rainforest Biodiversity Preserve and Lodge, the brainchild of former Quito Mayor Roque Sevilla, is part of a movement to save the rainforest by restricting its exploitation to a single use, ecotourism. Sevilla hopes to protect the forest and convert visitors into ardent conservationists.
Mashpi is within the Tumbez-Choco-Darien region, a “biodiversity hot spot,” which is broadly defined as an area rich in species diversity but under threat. The conservation effort here has particular resonance, since the land was not that long ago the site of a logging operation.
“You’d think the first ones to get here would be biologists or other scientists,” Yunes says, as we slog through a landscape dense with life. “But no, it was a logging company.”
Scars Fading
That was 20 years ago, and the scars left by the industry are disappearing under the relentless growth of trees and other flora.
Gigantic tree ferns and enormous elephant-ear plants give the place a Jurassic look. Palm trees with external stilt-like root systems are believed, apocryphally, to “walk” toward rare patches of sunlight on the forest floor. A “strangler fig” tree has enveloped its neighbor in an arboreal death grip.
The fauna is no less wondrous. Yunes plucks a thick brown millipede off a leaf to demonstrate its defense mechanism. He blows on the bug in his cupped hands, inspiring the creature to emit a small blast of cyanide, which smells a bit like almond and skunk.
The traveler who braves these elements will find surprisingly luxurious accommodations at the just-opened Mashpi Lodge, situated atop these Andean foothills amid a cloud forest. It is a comfort to know you can pull off your muddied gumboots at the end of the day and soak in a jacuzzi, get a massage or tuck into first-class cuisine.
Watching Trogon
The lodge overlooks a rainforest valley. Rooms have floor- to-ceiling windows to put guests seemingly in the trees. Watching me from his perch just a few feet away, I observe a brilliant collared trogon, one of the 280 bird species found in Mashpi.
Plunking posh accommodations in the middle of a rainforest presents some obvious environmental challenges. Trash (including pointless waste like plastic water bottles) has to be trucked out and disposed of in Quito. Electricity is produced by a humming diesel generator, though there are plans to replace it with a small hydrological dam powered by a hillside river.
The lodge is otherwise mostly sensitive to the environment. One of the main attractions will be a 1.3-mile aerial tram over the forest. It’s expected to be running by September, but construction has been slow as the builders tiptoe between the wildlife to minimize their impact on the habitat.
Cutting Cable
Not all the locals were enamored of the resort and its tram.
“There was one guy who didn’t like what we are doing here,” says Yunes. “One of the neighbors who lives next door to the preserve. So when the cable first went up, he cut it. He went up and actually cut it.”
The neighbor, one of the squatters who had established property rights in the area, eventually came to an arrangement with the lodge. Metropolitan Touring, which owns the lodge and the land, says it will include nearby community members as shareholders in the reserve, and that at least 80 percent of its employees will be local residents.
The outreach extends to the village of Mashpi, which supplies much of the produce for lodge’s kitchen, something that helps out the community and reduces the lodge’s carbon footprint. So far, this small piece of the Andean rainforest is evidence that there is life after logging, and it is good.
Rates at the Mashpi Lodge start at $1,296 a person for 3 days/2 nights, including all meals, guided excursions and transportation to and from Quito, a 2 1/2-hour drive.
(Mike Di Paola writes on preservation and the environment for Muse, the arts and culture section of Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
(Muse highlights include Craig Seligman on books.)
To contact the writer of this column: Mike Di Paola at mdipaola@nyc.rr.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff in New York at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.
Mashpi Lodge
Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
The Mashpi Lodge in the Ecuadoran rainforest. The 22-room eco-lodge, built within a 2,600-acre "biodiversity preserve."
The Mashpi Lodge in the Ecuadoran rainforest. The 22-room eco-lodge, built within a 2,600-acre "biodiversity preserve." Photographer: Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
Mashpi Lodge
Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
The new Mashpi Lodge, built in trees in the Ecuadoran rainforest. Rooms are equipped with floor-to-ceiling windows to put guests in the middle of the trees and clouds.
The new Mashpi Lodge, built in trees in the Ecuadoran rainforest. Rooms are equipped with floor-to-ceiling windows to put guests in the middle of the trees and clouds. Photographer: Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
"Walking Tree"
Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
A "walking tree" has an external stilt-like root system, which is said, apocryphally, to give the tree mobility. Trees and plants compete for rare sunlight on the dark rainforest floor.
A "walking tree" has an external stilt-like root system, which is said, apocryphally, to give the tree mobility. Trees and plants compete for rare sunlight on the dark rainforest floor. Photographer: Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
Forest
Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
Sunlight filters down to the forest floor in northwest Ecuador. Formerly a logging camp, the Mashpi rainforest looks likely to bounce back by attracting ecotourists.
Sunlight filters down to the forest floor in northwest Ecuador. Formerly a logging camp, the Mashpi rainforest looks likely to bounce back by attracting ecotourists. Photographer: Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
Guide
Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
A guide in the Ecuadoran rainforest shows an elephant ear plant. The Mashpi Rainforest Biodiversity Preserve is dense with plant and animal life.
A guide in the Ecuadoran rainforest shows an elephant ear plant. The Mashpi Rainforest Biodiversity Preserve is dense with plant and animal life. Photographer: Mike Di Paola/Bloomberg
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