"Nestled on the western flank of the Andes, three hours northwest of Quito, I was swathed in the finery of the Chocó rainforest. Mashpi Lodge is an eco-tourism jewel, a five-star oasis within the wider Mashpi Reserve that serves up a resplendent rainforest encounter with the mighty Chocó. Truth be told, because the reserve traverses a wide altitude range, from 550 metres to 1400m, there’s the rainforest and the cloud forest. There’s a high level of endemism here, by the separation through the Andes. The forests on the western side of the Andes evolved entirely differently to the Amazon rainforest on the eastern side. To really make my head spin, geological history testifies that prior to the seismic uplift of the Andes, this was all one sprawling forest."

Read Mike's full article here.

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