Sky biking in the cloud forest
First thing is, you are asking: “What the heck is a cloud forest?” If you fly up into the clouds, are there forests up there? No, you silly twit, planes would crash if there were trees growing way up there. Sometimes there are flocks of birds in the clouds, and if they hit a plane bad things happen (especially for the birds) but here we are already off track and the story hasn’t started yet. Cloud forests are much different than rainforests, and we haven’t even discussed sky biking. The best is still to come.
I experienced my first cloud forest in northern Ecuador and I’ll be back again as soon as I get invited for another free media trip. The Amazon is a tropical rainforest, not a cloud forest. The Amazon to the east of the Andes is like a swamp; it’s very hot and it rains a lot. There are rainforests in many places around the globe. We have in one in beautiful British Columbia except its sure dang not tropical. Cloud forests are only found at higher elevations in the mountains. In Ecuador, the Andes Mountains present an obstacle to winds and moisture wafting up from the Pacific Ocean and moving east. The moisture creeps up valleys on the sides of steep mountains in the form of clouds and then voila! It rains. A much higher elevation than the Amazon means a much different climate, different creatures, and an entirely different environment, the best aspect being that it is not stinking hot. It’s cool in more ways than one.
Mashpi Lodge is the crown jewel of the Ecuadorean cloud forest. It’s only three hours’ drive north of the capital of Quito but it might as well be on the moon. Quito is an ancient colonial heritage city buried in the bottom of a hot and polluted valley surrounded by volcanoes. Quito goes back quite a ways, as the old colonial architecture shows, churches vying with cathedrals and more churches for your attention. Mashpi is a gleaming modern mirrored hideaway hidden high deep in the Ecuadorian jungle, constantly bathed in mist. There are many surprises waiting for the visitor’s attention, including trees that walk and a wonderful multitude of poisonous plants and creatures that will bite you as quickly as Bob’s your uncle. Then, of course, there is the Sky Bike, which is seldom mentioned in the Mashpi literature because the main focus in the cloud forest is on rare birds and not on scaring yourself silly.
I love birds as much as the next person, and occasionally even enjoy one for dinner, and the cloud forest in Ecuador is the world’s best location for birdwatching. Or, keeping count of the number of birds you have observed to check off your birdwatcher’s bucket list. There are more bird species in Ecuador than there are weird plants, and there is definitely some weird flora and fauna in Ecuador that would love to meet you. At the time of my adventure in the cloud forest I was not old enough to be considered a serious bird watcher, because from my own experience travelling the world you need at least one foot and maybe two toes in the bucket to be a serious bird watcher. One day soon…
I must admit they have a very serious array of hummingbirds in Ecuador, and hummingbirds are really cool. How millions of hummingbirds have somehow managed to find out that the Ecuador cloud forest is the place to hang out, I don’t know, but if you are fond of tiny little helicopter-style birds that fly backwards, forwards, sideways, upside and down, all at a million miles per hour, come to the Ecuador cloud forest. Bring a great camera or all you will get is a blur in y our photo.
Mashpi Lodge is quite the oddity. Instead of the mossy wood structure you might expect to find hidden in the depths of the cloud forest, the lodge is a glass and concrete architectural masterpiece, constructed elsewhere and transported here to be assembled bit by bit. This avoids the usual method of cutting down the local forest for building materials. Like virtually every other country in the world, Ecuador’s robber barons are busy as beavers cutting down every tree they can find to increase their fortunes. The cloud forest around Mashpi Lodge survives because the owner is a political figure, either the former president of the country or the former mayor of Quito or something serious like that. The lodge is a 5-star resort, the kind that is foolish enough to invite foreign travel writers to drop by for a visit in the hopes the writers will provide a favourable review for rich readers. I can highly recommend Mashpi for the décor, jungle, wild animals and food, but there is a rumour that the huge glass walls confuse the birds which end up crashing into them, which is a rumour I hope is not true.
Yes, of course, we’ll get around to the Sky Bike in a minute, but first let’s explore the property. The rooms are terrific, with huge glass windows that make you feel you are right in the middle of the jungle, which you are. The dining room is wall to wall glass windows. There is a rooftop terrace where you can get face to face with the birds. Then there are the trails. Our guide starts our walk at the lodge and heads downwards. Why downhill? There is a meaning in his madness. His mantra is “touch nothing,” a mantra that he repeats every 30 seconds or so. Evidently there are so many poisonous plants in the jungle that it’s amazing that any tourists are still alive. He casually points them out, saying: “Look at this.” Then he immediately says: “Don’t touch that! Didn’t I tell you not to touch that?” It’s great fun. Google the lodge up now and make a reservation. Don’t tell them I sent you and warned you about the poisonous plants and killer creatures.
Then there are the “walking trees.” Evidently this species of trees moves its roots constantly in search of sunshine, and good luck with that. The valley is constantly saturated with mist. I feel like I am back home in Vancouver in the winter months. The trees manage to move a few centimetres a year, about the speed that visitors descend in the muck wearing big muddy boots. Towards the bottom of the valley howler monkeys do what they do best, making enough racket to wake the dead. If you are asking why they call them howler monkeys, I will not explain. If you think you like monkeys, but have not actually met any yet because you have never been anywhere monkeys operate, then give your poor head a shake. Nasty screaming, and they bite too.
The best part of a Mashpi Lodge downhill hike is that the walk ends late afternoon in the bottom of the valley. I am quite tempted to call this an irritation, because you have to trudge way back up in the dark and will be tired, hungry and in mortal fear of poisonous plants and fed up with the whining emanating from overweight North American and European birdwatchers, most of whom would rather probably have preferred to have been sitting on the lodge terrace taking photos of rare hummingbirds to show their friends back in Akron, Ohio while sipping white wine.
As soon as night has fallen, your guide will lead you back up the dirt road towards the lodge. You will be equipped with a flash light and with any luck your lamp will fail like mines does every time someone hands me one of the damned things. The purpose of the flash light is to point it towards the jungle, where you will discover to your great alarm a very large number of luminous eyeballs pointing back at you. These are the same eyeballs belonging to creatures you passed on the way down the hill of which you were unaware at the time. To whom these eyeballs belong is a matter of discussion between you and your guide. It is highly unlikely any of them possess the ability to eat you, but it’s always part of the fun to know you are out of your safety shadow. If your flashlight fails, as mine did of course, then you will be in the dark and even more nervous about all the eyeballs and the creatures behind them that you know are there but can no longer see. (Actually, the dots are a luminous fungus that glow in the dark.)
With any luck, you may be pursued by an ocelot. Whether there are jaguars or other large beasts in the Ecuadorean forests near the Lodge I don’t know, but there certainly are ocelots. These are about half the size of a jaguar, same colouring and spots, and with the same sharp teeth. On my visit some under-educated tourists to Mashpi had evidently adopted the bad habit of feeding a local baby ocelot that hung around the property looking for snacks. So when we went on our little trek, the ocelot appeared out of the jungle looking for something or someone on which to nosh. The lady standing next to me was selected for attention and while the ocelot was sinking his teeth into her thigh I jumped about five feet into the air on to a table and managed to shoot some video footage in the process, just to prove it happened. I never asked where its mother might be.
By now you have forgotten about the Sky Bike, haven’t you? It’s not the premiere attraction at Mashpi, what with the hummingbirds, rare tropical birds, monkeys, ocelots and poisonous plants roaming about. No birdwatchers make the long journey to Mashpi because of bicycles in the sky. But in order to find myself in fine fettle for the fine foods served up at dinner in the lodge, I always find a little exercise comes in handy. A three-hour hike doesn’t cut the mustard, so to speak. I wanted to ride in the sky. So the next day, before pursuing more poisonous plants, I asked a staff member to lead me to the launch point and to serve as co-pilot.
It may be that the Sky Bike is unique to Mashpi and the cloud forest. Evidently an engineer hired to help build the lodge came up with the idea. The Sky Bike is simply an ordinary bicycle adapted to be dangled from a cable in the sky and pedaled along that cable by two people. Rather, the rider in the back does all the pedaling and the passenger sitting in the front seat simply sits in wonder and goggles at the scenery. The Sky Bike is ridden at the top of the jungle canopy, far far above the jungle floor far below, and at the top of the jungle canopy the Mashpi guest will come face to face with orchids and rare birds who have no idea what you are doing way up there.
Those with a fear of heights should not bother attempting the Sky Bike. Yes, you are safely strapped into the contraption, and your staff guide/peddler is sitting right behind you working hard to propel you on the cable across the canyon far below, but there is the question of elevation and altitude. How high are we up in the sky? Should we take a tumble, how far is it to the ground? But like Alice in Wonderland who has taken a mushroom that has made her very tall indeed, you really don’t want to know the details. You cross the canyon to the far side and say: “Wow, that was exciting!” Then you realize you have to traverse the canyon back to the launch point on a wooden deck on the other side.
After serving in the role of passenger in the front I volunteered to do the trip again, but this time in the form of backseat pedaller, just to work up a hunger for the fine dinner waiting in the lodge, you see. This is where you learn about gravity. The cable across the canyon sags in the middle and in order to make it up the grade to the landing platform on the other side the pedaller on the back of the bike needs to work like hell. Otherwise the bike will get stuck hanging in mid-air, which is not only embarrassing but could possibly turn out to be fatal if your guide can’t figure out how to change positions with you while you are both several hundred feet up in the air in a bicycle built for two. The hummingbirds might nibble on you for weeks.
Given that you and I are both having this conversation, it’s apparent that I managed to survive. A lifetime of playing hockey, riding mountain bikes and climbing mountains gave me the legs that came in handy. I put my back into it and propelled our bike back up to safety. The fear of birds, snakes, monkeys and assorted wildlife in the trees had nothing to do with it. Victory was mine. I was the conqueror and the hero. If you have no problem with vertigo, I suggest you give the Sky Bike in the cloud forest at Mashpi Lodge in Ecuador a go. I will wait here for you.