Mashpi Lodge

Afternoon cloud often fills the valley below Mashpi Lodge, and from the beds in its glass-walled rooms guests watch the forest vanish and return within the hour. The lodge stands at about 950 metres in the Chocó, the band of wet forest that runs down the Pacific side of the Andes and holds one of the richest concentrations of species on the planet. It opened in 2012 in the Mashpi reserve, north-west of Quito in the province of Pichincha. It was built on a simple argument: that a high-end lodge could pay for the protection of the forest around it.

History

The reserve was put together by Roque Sevilla, an Ecuadorian businessman and conservationist, who bought forest that had been partly logged and was set to be cleared. Rather than close it off, he chose to build a lodge whose guests would finance research and protection. The lodge is run with Metropolitan Touring, the Quito travel company that Sevilla's group controls, and it is a member of National Geographic Unique Lodges of the World. The protected area has grown since the opening, and scientists working in the reserve have described plants and animals new to science, frogs and orchids among them. A research team based at the lodge records what lives in the forest, and guests are taken along on some of that work.

Architecture and design

The Quito architect Alfredo Ribadeneira designed the building as a long structure of steel and glass, set on a slope and placed into the forest rather than cleared from it. Much of the frame was made off site and brought in by road to keep construction work inside the reserve to a minimum. The outer walls of the rooms and public spaces are floor-to-ceiling glass, so that the interior frames the canopy at every turn, and the finishes inside are plain and modern. The result looks closer to a research station than a jungle lodge, which is the intention.

Rooms and suites

The rooms are few, a little over twenty, and each has a full glass wall facing the forest. Beds are turned towards the view. The sounds of the forest carry through: birds at first light, then insects and frogs once darkness falls. Suites are larger, with more glass and more space to sit and watch the weather move across the hills.

Dining

Meals are taken in the lodge's restaurant, where the kitchen cooks with Ecuadorian produce: fish from the Pacific coast, plantain, cacao and the fruit of the lowland forest.

Location

The drive from Quito takes about three and a half hours, climbing out of the capital and dropping through Nanegalito into the cloud-forest country of the north-west. Mariscal Sucre International Airport lies at Tababela, east of Quito, which adds time to the transfer. Once at the lodge, guests rarely need a vehicle. Trails lead through the reserve to waterfalls and river pools, and guides run night walks to find frogs, stick insects and the other animals that only come out after dark. The Dragonfly, an aerial gondola with open cabins, carries small groups across the canopy, and the Sky Bike, a two-seat bicycle running on a cable, lets two riders pedal out over a gorge. An observation tower rises above the trees for birdwatching at dawn, and the Life Centre near the lodge is a place to see butterflies and hummingbirds at close range. Rain falls through the year, heaviest in the first months. For a luxury lodge in the Ecuadorian cloud forest, Mashpi is the reference point: the forest here is the reason to come, and the building exists to frame it.