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This is a bit of a retrospective on our trip to Mashpi cloud forrest (in Ecuador) before we flew to Buenos Aires last September, as it somehow didn’t get blogged, and deserves more than a mention.
MASHPI PANORAMA: the lodge is nestled in the middle, our wonderful guide Lizardo features on the right
The story of Mashpi Lodge begins in 2001, when the local mayor bought a section of the Mashpi Cloud Forest. I was initially skeptical regarding his motivation, but ended up convinced of the purity of his rationale to protect this area of astounding biodiversity, after years of deforestation and exploitation for gold-mining had threatened its unique and curious flora and fauna.
Mashpi Lodge was created by architect Alfredo Ribadeneria in collaboration with interior designer Diego Arteta to create a space where guests could be immersed in the cloud-forest while making minimal impact on the surrounding environment
Our days were spent hiking hilly trails 
cunningly converted into steps by setting plastic drink-bottle crates deep into the mud, and splashing along tinkling streams. The vistas, were vast and ubiquitously spectacular. We discovered untold medicine trees, the Mashpi Magnolia (unique to this nature reserve), and so many fabulous birds. Butterflies abounded. While the rare Spectacled Bear managed cunningly to elude us, we did have a rather memorable encounter with some black howler monkeys. Bella and I were out for a sunset hike, and we spotted a troop in the trees directly above us and tried to track them as they leisurely swung from branch to branch towards their sleeping spot. It was a rare siting, and just as we were starting to feel rather smug, they weed on us. A LOT. Turns out monkey wee REALLY stinks! But the real question is, is it more lucky than bird poo?
This butterfly can camouflage itself as an owl….
…..or as a snake!
The ‘walking’ palm that can move itself up to a meter per year!
One of the cheeky monkeys that weed on us!
Most of our walks took in a waterfall or 2 where we could have a shower or a dip. They tended to be on the ‘refreshing’ side, but inspired awe and reflection about how special and rare it is to experience such remote and beautiful places.
Our guide, Lizardo (for real!) 
not only looked the part, but was incredibly knowledgeable, and had a passion for tiny frogs that turned out to be rather infectious (the passion not the frogs!). He was locally born, and totally self-made (taught himself great English from scratch in 3 months using Duo Lingo which renders our reciprocal Spanish efforts using the same app rather pathetic). In one of his past lives he was a climbing guide hence ninja with ropes, which made for some fun tarzan swinging:
Mashpi Lodge has some great gimmicks which serve both to reveal different aspects and perspectives of forest life and appealed to the kids (including the big kids!) in our party. The skybike is like a push-me-pull-you trans-forest-self-propelled vehicle. Its heavy and therefore a LOT harder work than it looks. But that (obviously!) didn’t stop us.
The Dragonfly (a form of open-air cable car) is a lot longer, and mechanically driven hence less hard work. Our first trip consisted of 45 minutes of ‘flying’ through a cloud, but we caught some amazing views and a few cool birds next go.
The foggy one
The viewtastic one!
Other than some spectacular cocktails (inspired by the forrest) 2 other highlights of the Mashpi experience include the Humming Bird station where feeders attracted literally hundreds of birds – beautiful to watch, rather frustrating to photograph……
And the thrills and spills of night walks:
We celebrated the end of this first ‘holiday’ section of the greater Monicofamilytravels adventure with cocktails in the jaccuzzi.
Next stop was BA, 1st school term kicking off, and our Argentinian vida.
2 furry friends to see you off!
And some less furry ones
And I couldn’t ACTUALLY close out without memorialising James’s hair! (it does it for me baby!)
a great view of the bay), took a gentle hike that afternoon to the local Mirador, then stopped on our way home to snorkel at a recommended spot. Despite double wetsuitage, entering the freezing water elicited much shrieking, only surpassed in decibels when a playful sea lion skimmed past and then stuck around to duck and dive all around us. Emily managed to get a great photo (whilst screaming!), and this might take centre stage for her next blog post.
We took a private fishing tour. None of us are remotely into fishing, but it turns out that it can be really quite exciting when both lines kept ‘catching’ simultaneously, and we got to ‘fight’ the fish from belt harnesses. We landed one pretty quickly – a spectacular yellowfin tuna (which we enjoyed for the next few dinners!), but all the others got away (because they were sooooo big that they broke the lines/swallowed the lures – most likely sharks – obvs!). And then the next unexpected treat – the sun came out (we haven’t seen it since Quito!), so we swam to a pristine white beach, and lounged around with the sea lions and built sandcastles.
hot chocolate and presents in bed. Our biggest hit was a blue candy ‘thumb’which came with a dipping pot full of mega-tangy sherbert. Who knew such gastronomic delights existed and could be savoured at such an uncivilised hour? The Safari Camp where we are staying served cupcakes for breakfast, and decorated both the table and us with various lurid masks, sprinkles and streamers. We headed out for a tour of Plazas Island 
where we got very close to various nesting birds, handled some gruesome skeletons, and a observed a colony of bachelor sea lions (they go here to hangout when they’ve been ostracised, or when they are building strength to win the hearts of sea-lionesses!). The boat crew had been duly tipped off, and served cake number 2 at lunch. It’s an Ecuadorian tradition to make your birthday wish as you (literally) take a bite of cake, and Bella dived in without hesitation! 
and ended up in a lagoon where lots of black tipped sharks were taking their afternoon snoozes under some rocks round the edge. During the snorkelling trip Emily lost a tooth! There was a dramatic amount of blood, so Em got out of the water to avoid attracting even more sharks. 
have a rather dubious butter knife to add to our lean travel kit!). But, apparently it also rains in the rainforest – duh!!! And when the rain came it was the kind that drenches you before you even get the chance to zip up your back pack, and pull the packaway hood out of your dodgy mac. We hunkered down in pairs using mildewed life vests for insulation (and yes, if you look closely at the picture you I AM wearing a binbag!). It usually only lasted for 30 – 40 minutes, but it was the uncertainty of the duration which was probably the toughest feature of each downpour. The girls were amazing. We never even got a whimper out of them, rather beaming smiles when the sun re-appeared (along with a radioactive bubble gum lollipop from Jasmana).
