Mashpi Lodge: A Rainforest Hotel in the Clouds | Ecuador 2022
Welcome to Mashpi, a rainforest hotel in the clouds. Mashpi is located in the Choco bioregion, one of the most diverse areas in the world. There are over 400 types of birds, frogs, trees that are endemic here. You can't find them anywhere else in the world. We just arrived here at Mashpi in time for lunch. Fantastic timing. It has a beautiful dining room that is all glass. You can sit outside, but when we arrived they asked us do you want to sit inside or outside? So of course, we chose outside. The view here is amazing.
The menu is three courses, and you can choose between one of two things. So I chose the vegan ceviche. It has hearts of palm, chocho, which is an Andean white bean, avocado. We've got some pickled tomato and red onion in it. Also some corn, it looks fantastic. And of course we've got some tostado, which is toasted corn. And because this is a ceviche, it comes with a peanut sauce or mani, which is very typical on the coast. Andres didn't want to eat vegan. So he got the
consome of chicken. It comes in this amazing, beautiful bowl. This one is stunning. I want to steal this bowl. But first, let's get to this ceviche. Oh it’s good. It has all of the brightness
of a traditional ceviche. The mani doesn't make it taste like peanut or peanut butter. It just gives it this nice layer. And these beans and hearts of palm are delicious. So Andres and I decided that each of us would get a different dish. So we could try everything. Somehow in this, I got the vegan menu and he got all of my favorite things. Lobster is my number one favorite thing and he ordered the breaded langoustine, which are breaded and also have wild cilantro, which is called chilangua. So it comes with
chilangua. It's a wild cilantro that grows here in the forest. Also mountain garlic, a bunch of other spices. It's on a bed of risotto. It looks amazing. Dehydrated lemongrass, I can smell from here. He's across the table from me because I moved because the sun was hot. And then I'm not going to be upset. My dish also looks fantastic. I actually shouldn't say that I got the vegan menu
because I didn't at all. My dish has pork. So it's a chocha, which is kind of like a cucumber but it has a thicker skin so you can cook it. It is stuffed with caramelized pork and leeks and it's served with mashed potatoes and cherry tomatoes, and I know it's going to be delicious. But, you know, you always have order envy when you see across the table someone is having seafood even though this looks amazing. It looks beautiful. I love this. Let's try it.
It's like a good mash with pork, you can't go wrong with that. Very good, very comforting. And then a little bit of this. I thought it was chayote but it's not. This is actually a fruit. Doesn't taste like a fruit. Tastes almost like a pepper. So if you think of having a stuffed pepper, this is kind of a very similar take on it. But now, I want to try the langostino. Yeah, I want to try it. It almost looks like a lobster tail.
It tastes like a lobster tail. While the wild cilantro doesn't have a very strong flavor at all, but could be because it's cooked. It's a light lemongrass. The risotto. This is an awesome awesome dish. I love it. And this is the room, such clean lines, just a bit of color. A welcome note which is so nice. We've got some bug repellent which you really need, bags,
water bottles, water, which is fantastic. And look at this view, this is gorgeous. So pretty. And here is the bathroom, shower. Okay, so they recommend that you arrive here at 11:00 am and we weren't sure why. But now we do because you arrive here, you eat lunch, then you have a 3pm meeting where they brief you on how things are going to work. And right after
that, at 3:30pm you go on your first hike. So we're going to meet our guide. We're going up to the sky… something or other. Anyway, we're going on a hike. And from there, that's where we're going to plan the next few days of our time at Mashpi Lodge. We now have long sleeve clothing on, bug repellent we’re about to get boots because there are snakes in the grass. And what I love is that they know people need snacks. So that's what I'm getting for our hike.
10 minutes in some observations. We've seen tons of birds, it is so lush here. Very humid. The nice thing is, I've been in Ecuador for almost three months now. So walking uphill is bothering me less and less. I may still think I'm out of shape, but actually
I can do these walks. I still don't have the proper equipment: yoga pants, t-shirt. You do have to wear rubber boots here. 90 feet to the top, 30 meters. Let's see if I can do it, or I will chicken out. I think this one will be easier actually. Take a look at this.
I said, we weren't at the top, wasn't kidding. I think we're only halfway up. What do you think? Fantastic. Are you a little out of breath? No. Oh just me. Yep. Well, I am all strapped in to go on the skyline. Two seats. One of them pedals,
it’s not going to be me. It's Andres, 15 minutes to go across the top of the forest. I am terrified but there's nothing I can do because I don't pedal. I just sit and enjoy or be terrified. Okay. It does seem like you go pretty slow. Good job. Okay. I feel very comfortable with this. I thought this was more of a zip line but you're sitting down. This is actually quite beautiful.
Oh my god, look at this view. I want to do this again and we just started. Guys, I have done so many things in my life. I've been so fortunate. This is one of the most spectacular things. I thought it was going to be scary. It's amazing and for someone who's afraid of heights, there's so much tree top cover that you don't actually see the ground ground unless you really look. And so it's not that scary. Our side is so cool like we are right in the middle of it all.
We’re almost there, almost there. You’re doing it! Morning walk. It’s going to be three hours plus, depends on what the group wants to do. It's raining, and quite wet out. Obviously, we are in a rainforest, a cloud forest, but it's not so bad, they give you rain boots. And so going outside is very easy, brought a rain jacket, and even though it's raining, because this forest is so thick most of the rain doesn't actually make it down to you so I can hear it raining, but I'm not getting very wet. So this is a magnolia tree, look how high it is. Magnolias have been around longer than
butterflies and there are only a hundred here. And so just another reason why conservation and this region is so important. There are species, which are endangered, and fortunately there's a private reserve so we don't have to worry that for some reason they'll disappear. So the plan today was to come here to Magnolia Falls and then we would decide if we would go further. But I think this was so easy that we’ve all agreed that we’re going to go further. So the water that is through here is actually not from an outside source, it's rainwater that is captured by the forest, falls through and then makes these waterfalls and rivers.
So many times I've talked about how I don't like to hike uphill. It's not that I don't like to hike uphill but I find it really challenging. But that I love to walk flat but people are very confused when I say that.
But what I’m essentially saying is, I love doing this. We are walking along the riverbed, it is gorgeous. We've been going over an hour and I could do it all day. All right, that was absolutely my limit. I feel great but after we did the river we walked down a very muddy, steep hill to a gorgeous waterfall. Oh
and then we had to walk back a bit. So that was hard, that was really hard. It's about half an hour up, very muddy hill, still beautiful. But I think that was like my limit, like my max, that I could do. Thankfully, we are now at the end. So we're taking a firefly back,
so Andres and I are just…Andres and I are just waiting for the next one to come and I didn't want to walk all the way upstairs to that thing. So, just take a little bit of a rest. Okay, so this morning was quite a hike. But three course lunch. Feeling good. Came out for a late afternoon hike. We have come down to a wild orchid garden. It also has hummingbirds, I think
and then this beautiful observatory. As soon as we got here we saw a toucan. Did not get it on camera. Sorry. Yeah, you've got like a little. No, literally, you have a little tail. You have a little butterfly tail.
Yeah, keep walking. It'll probably decide or maybe not. I think it's just is like on you. Okay, so we were just at the butterfly farm in Mindo and all the butterflies, well most of them were pretty chill. And that's because a lot of butterflies are nocturnal, especially the ones that we saw, the owl butterflies, the ones that are brown on the outside, looks like they have an eye and are blue or purple on the inside. But it is five o'clock now and so it is crazy. They are so active. You still have one on your butt, you're like butterfly man, and the one on your butt is still there. It's the OGm it's like I claimed this guy and now you'll want on your head and one on your arm. You have like three on your arms.
Oh you’ve got now butterfly eggs on you. 6 am. We're up early because we're heading up to the top. We're going to check out some hummingbirds, some other things, I don't know…it's the morning. We're going to go for a hike. Kind of the usual thing around here. But I am excited. So this has actually been super interesting. I think it's really good for people like me
who don't know about birds. And it's like, oh, that one's pretty, that one's pretty. And then Andres has said that he has seen a number of birds that he's never seen before. We're just on the side of the road as you come into Mashpi Lodge and because of this time of day, which they knew would be good. This is the time of day where the birds start to feed on the moths and the bugs and the kind of everything. So there are lots of them in the trees and a lot of them very close to us. It's really good for everybody.
One of the things I love about this place is that although this is a luxury lodge and there are a lot of foreigners, we are surrounded by so many fantastic ingredients in this region and a lot of it is in the food. They have a lot of local ingredients, a lot of wild things, had wild cilantro the first day and so many traditional Ecuadorian foods, whether people know they're eating it or not because the menu is in English and then also Spanish. So I look at the Spanish menu. I look for dishes that I recognize but then sometimes when they come to the table they're done in a completely different way. And it's always a surprise. I love that they are embracing their culture and even though it's fine dining, three course menu for lunch and dinner, it's still Ecuadorian fine dining.
Guanabana or soursop is one of my favorite and then they've got a detox juice, which is fantastic. Moving on to the bread, you cannot come to Ecuador without having pan de yuca. One of my favorites. Other random breads, you have some marmalades. Oh, oatmeal…things to put in your oatmeal, lots of great fruits, meats. And I am definitely having some of that cheese.
Haven't even gotten the food yet. I just want to mention two things. Number one, this detox juice is fantastic. It has some celery in it. I don't know what else. It looks like it has some blackberry in it and some other things. It's fantastic. Then also, it is really hard to get a good cup of international tea in Ecuador. So there are lots of horchata, some herbal teas, but they don't have a culture of tea. So if you come to Ecuador, you definitely need to bring your own. However, here they have Earl Gray, they've got a bunch of green teas. They actually have
several different kinds of black tea. So I am going to take advantage of this because as a Maritimer from Canada, I am used to drinking lots of tea. Yuca munchin in a honey sauce. I love yuca.
2022-02-19 02:31
