Mashpi Cloud Forest

 Next morning we headed back to Quito for overnight at Illa, where we stayed on our previous two nights, so we were looking forward to another dinner. We arrived in time for dinner and after a short night's rest we were ready for our trip to Mashpi Cloud Forest.

We taxi'ed to one of the pickup points, Casa Gangotena Boutique Hotel, a beautiful mansion from a bygone era. The lobby and downstairs public rooms were decorated with gorgeous rose arrangements (and a lovely Christmas tree.) 

The 3 plus hour drive ends with a long (2km/1.2m) stretch on narrow, rough gravel. 

We were greeted, oriented, and dined. Our waiter for the full stay was Darwin, a charming young man who truly aimed to please, trying to anticipate our every need. They serve three full meals per day and it is hard to resist. Needless to say, after our Mashpi stay, we both felt the need to diet, despite all the hiking based activities.

Our room had two walls of glass looking into the canopy. Delightful.

After lunch we were off for our first trek. First up: getting fitted for our gear (boots and poncho). Being a cloud forest we pretty much needed these to enjoy (tolerate?) hiking in the rain through muddy trails and stream beds. 

Our first outing in the forest was the Strangler Fig Walk with Andrew and Michelle (from Cambridge England) our touring partners during our stay at Mashpi. It was an easy test walk. Along the way we spotted an Alamy Dwarf Iguana.

While at Mashpi, we encountered many couples and families with similar itineraries, Mashpi to Galapagos and vice versa. One a 3 generation family who squeezed all the activities into a 2-night stay and another family with parents and daughters all in science oriented fields.

The next morning, we took the Magnolia Falls Walk. A large portion of the walk was in (yep, in) the stream. So glad we had those boots. Along the trail we got a glimpse of a Silky Anteater and a Giant African Snail (nope, not a native but impressive anyway). We climbed up a tower to ride the Dragon Fly gondola for a view over the canopy. The highlight of the ride was viewing a sloth (very challenging to spot due to it's natural camouflage; yep he is hiding in that photo below that seems to be just green leaves). We also got caught in some rain. We really appreciated our ponchos.

 After lunch we walked to the Life Center where we encountered Tayras (weasels), Agoutis (large rodents), a Ring-Tailed Coati (raccoon like animals), birds (including a tocanet of the toucan family), butterflies / moths and orchids. 

The highlight of the Mashpi experience was our Breakfast with the Hummingbirds. But first we stopped to see tanagers, warblers, tree climbers and other birds. It turns out that the hummies visited us there, landing on our hands as we tried to take photos. 

We moved on to the "hummingbird garden", our and their breakfast area. Here there were hummingbird feeders crowded with numerous types of hummies dining on the elixir in the feeders. Nothing special to us, but surely appealing to them.

Later we took the Sky Bike for a ride over the forest. 

After lunch we toured the Science Lab where we learned about the types of wild cats (5), snakes, insects (including translucent butterflies and Dynastes Hercules Beetles, a type of
rhinoceros beetle.) and other species that inhabit the forest. 

On our final night we did a night walk where we encountered frogs, a scorpion that glows when illuminated, spiders, a centipede and crickets.

Our final trek was a short (but steep) one to Taronga Falls on the morning of our departure.