Heads in the Clouds
OK, so here’s the deal with Cloud Forests. It’s exactly like a Rainforest, but—wait for it—with clouds. Same amount of moisture, you’re just up a little higher so it’s floating around you instead of falling on you.
If you’ve ever wondered where the line between heavy fog and light rain exists, this is where.
“Does it ever get sunny here?” we asked our guide, the awesome David. He assured is that it does, but not for long. Just like Amazonia, the weather can turn on a dime. It differs from Amazonia mostly in the altitude and temperature. So while you will get just as wet at Mashpi as you will at say, La Selva, it’s a little more comfortable.
Just like in La Selva, in between breakfast, lunch, and dinner there was a grueling (ha!) pace of jungle excursions and activities. In addition to the wildlife encounters and hikes, there were two lovely opportunities to really get up in the clouds.
First, they have a two-person Sky Bike that is exactly what it sounds like. Only one passenger can pedal at a time, and your legs have to reach the pedals, so that meant I was the engine, which was fine as it helped offset lunch. It was spooky to head off into a vista you couldn’t actually see, and the fog/clouds have a way of dampening sound, so it’s eerily quiet until you get directly over a waterfall and are reminded that it’s a long. way. down.
More passive, and more companionable, is this crazy contraption they’ve built called the Dragonfly. A modified ski gondola, it carries you and two friends across the forest while your guide scopes out flora and fauna.
Super bonus is finding out the location of some of Mashpi’s camera traps, mounted on the support poles. I don’t know what they’re hoping to see with those—birds? Monkeys? But the day we visited, for sure they got footage of awestruck tourists.