Mashpi Lodge

World class experience and staff! Every detail thought of and every desire accommodated! The daily activities were unforgettable. Gabriel our guide was made sure everything was perfect! The lodge, room and restaurant are stunning! The 3 hour trek from Quito was fine. Note the last 45 minutes were very bumpy but worth every minute to be delivered to this amazing experience in the cloud forest Don’t walk…run to book your stay. Stay 3 night to get the most of your stay.

We had the opportunity to stay at Mashpi Lodge as a pre Galapagos cruise add on and it was worth every cent. We had seen Mashpi Lodge on a travel show and had wanted to come ever since. We experienced a communications issue on the day we travelled to Mashpi from Quito - which caused a bit of consternation albeit adding to the adventure of travelling to a rainforest, a number of landslides had occurred - but that was resolved to our satisfaction by management on arrival - thank you Alex. Despite not getting to Mashpi until mid afternoon they kept the restaurant open for a late lunch for us, then we had our orientation and out for our first activity - observation tower and skybike. The weather was untypical and we had great views from the tower. The skybike is such a clever idea and very enjoyable. That evening we went out for a night walk to see what wildlife we could encounter - scorpions, spiders and frogs were spotted. On the first full day in the morning we went to see the hummingbirds, plus other species and a tayra showed up too. On the way back we went for a vigorous massage under a waterfall - great experience. In the afternoon we went to the life centre and did some more wildlife spotting before being taken through the life cycle of a butterfly and seeing each stage in reality. The second full day we went on a hike down to magnolia falls and then along the river, sometimes in the river, before climbing up the valley to join the dragonfly and glide above the canopy with just the sound of the wind and rainforest creatures below - amazing experience. In the afternoon it was back to hummingbirds, as that is what the group wanted to do, and what an array of birds - more than what we saw first time. Such a privilege to sit and watch the wildlife, although the hummingbirds have no concept of personal space and fly, what seems, right by you and you can hear the hum of their wings. That evening we did another night walk, different location, where we treated to an array of frogs and a scorpion. The last morning we opted to go to the science centre and talk with one of the biologists studying the Choco rainforest - very interesting- and we saw footage of puma, ocelot and other cats captured by their movement sensor cameras in the forest. We had Gabriel and Franklin as our guides, we were spoiled as we had two for our group of 6, both were incredibly knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna and went above and beyond helping us with photos and answering questions. The restaurant team were attentive and the quality of the food was superb - so much choice with different menus being available for lunch and dinner. We had the same waiter at all meals, the wonderful Dalton, which personalised the service and we were always addressed by name. Fernando, the barman, made excellent cocktails and advised us that he helped create some of the cocktails on offer. Room 22 was very nice and had everything we needed - although we spent minimal time

5 star service from a really wonderful hotel with amazing staff in a very unique locations. Big thanks to Estuardo our guide, and Darwin and Edgar in the restaurant who really took care of me. I stayed for two nights and had an exceptional time. The tours were really safe, interesting and I gained a lot of knowledge.