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Find out about my favorite places, hotels, tours and more by Sign up to receive email updates and to hear what’s going on with Travel Babbo! I’d stick with CR for spring break, and if your boys like it, put Ecuador and Mashpi (and maybe the Galapagos) on your list for a future school break.Fantastic post, Eric! Visit the post for more. We spent over two hours with a dozen species of hummingbirds and it never got old. We sat down and within seconds hummingbirds were flying all around us, hovering in front of our faces, and even zipping through our hair. After two hours of downtime, we met Lizardo at 7pm, put on our mud boots, and headed off into the cloud forest of Ecuador. On Mashpi Lodge’s Dragonfly. Alcoholic drinks aren’t included.We tipped our guide $200 and the lodge staff $100. Luxury. We then slowly walked back up – a good climb, but there are stairs along the steeper sections (recycled Coca Cola crates), and our kids had no issues.This was so cool! We’re not really bird watchers, nor are we knowledgeable about birds, but it was still nice to be there. So amazing!
So very true. I wasn’t about to take out my camera in the rain to capture the scene with the elephant ears, but it was one of our trip highlights – up there with the hummingbirds! Average nightly rate: $1,400 CAD per room, per night Website: mashpilodge.com . Included: Jacuzzi, meals and activities, except for the Dragonfly (extra $40 USD). The guides there were excellent.We easily could have spent another day or two at Mashpi, exploring other hiking trails and doing more night walks in Ecuador’s cloud forest. Then we headed into the butterfly enclosure where a dozen types of butterflies were flying all around and landing on us. I loved going through the trees and over the treetops, learning about everything on the way. On-site spa services vary. For us, it was about the location, the excursions, the animals, and the lodge itself. Telegraph Travel's Teresa Machan checks into Mashpi Lodge, Ecuador's most luxurious jungle lodge, to try out a new 'Dragonfly' experience that promises to … I liked the idea of unplugging for a night and just enjoying the experience. We were just happy to see a red bird and a yellow bird and a brown bird!After breakfast, we hiked with Lizardo down to Mashpi Lodge’s aptly-named Life Center.
And seeing Blue Morpho butterflies flying through the forest, and being able to track them from above, was magical.My kids liked, but didn’t love, the experience. So we all took turns swinging through the forest on a root. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You’ll get wet on a lot of excursions and the lodge dries your clothes for free, but you don’t get them back right away so you need to be able to rotate outfits. And to top it off, there are lightning-bug-like things called Cucuyas that would light up the forest periodically. We then spent another night at Casa Gangotena before flying back to the US early the next morning.We absolutely loved Mashpi Lodge in Ecuador’s cloud forest. I wanted to do the Sky Bike as well – similar to the Dragonfly, but a lot shorter and powered with your feet. How do you deal with going to places with the Ziak virus? When they had found several types and sizes of leaves, they came back to the lodge, sketched out their plans for their shirts, and then started painting the leaves and pressing them onto t-shirts. Galapagos Cruises. Our first (partial) day we would hike to a waterfall, and then go on a night walk. La Pinta Yacht The lodge provides boots for all hikes/excursions.I always tell people with two kids that if they have a third child, a lot of their travel costs will increase substantially.
Did I mention it was cool?Note: I didn’t take a camera, so I have no photos! My daughter had more hummingbirds around her than the rest of us because of her pink shorts, and we all wished that we had worn red.We had so much fun on the first night walk that we did it again our second night – but with my 8-year-old firmly committed this time, and me with a camera!