Reading Time: 8 minutes Surrounded by towering waterfalls, soaring exotic trees, and seemingly unending, countless tones of green, Mashpi Lodge is located in the very heart of Ecuador´s Choco cloud forest, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. While watching breathtaking videos and looking …

A Place Apart: The Mashpi Reserve in Ecuador    The Mashpi Reserve, located in the Ecuadorian Choco (which itself is part of a broader biogeographical region that runs from Panama to the north of Peru), is found along the western slope of the Andes. Located in the northwest corner of Quito’s …

By: Augusto Rodríguez Flores. Let’s start by saying that all biological organisms are grouped into natural units of reproduction, which we know as species. On one hand, species that live on the planet today came from other different species that existed in the past, through a process known as …

Reading Time: 8 minutes When we talk about the forests of Mashpi, a term that often crops up is diversity. …

Reading Time: 14 minutes “The life of plants and animals is, in a way, the sum of their interactions with other plants and animals and the environment that they live in.” …

Reading Time: 3 minutes The story of Mashpi Lodge begins in 2001, when businessman and former mayor of Quito Roque Sevilla decided to purchase a section of the Ecuadorian Chocó forest …

Reading Time: 6 minutes The forests have spies; guardians that try to detangle the mysteries guarded by the woods, to understand their dynamics and through knowledge and science protect the most sacred and mystic places on the planet. …

Reading Time: 5 minutes Fernando Timpe knows Mashpi Reserve, where Mashpi Lodge is located, like the back of his hand. He was part of its history long before its promoter, Roque Sevilla, had even contemplated building a hotel on the land. At the time, the very idea seemed to be lunacy. …

Reading Time: 3 minutes It is incredible to see the enormous diversity in the shape, size and design of their beaks. …

Reading Time: 5 minutes A bio-region and important hotbed of diversity for the planet, is a game between mountains and the sea. …

Reading Time: 6 minutes Humid tropical forests are tangles of complexity; layers upon layers of ecosystems, microhabitats and microclimates mixed into a single one. …

Reading Time: 4 minutes The investigation department is the home of various projects carried out in the Mashpi Reserve. …

Reading Time: 9 minutes Visiting Mashpi Lodge, I am reminded of the feeling of awe and wonder. That sense of amazement, a blend of delight and incomprehension. …

Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s not every day that new species are discovered and catalogued. But in the Mashpi Reserve’s 1,200 hectares of protected forest, that’s just what happened recently. …

Reading Time: 7 minutes The forests of Mashpi are found in this quandary between high and low, an eternal sway, creating an entirely unique place.   …