Wet ridges, tree ferns, and a slope that keeps dropping
You can reserve a five night cloud forest stay in the Loja highlands with this office
From $1,710 per person, two sharing a double room, for five nights. This is the second half of the southern Ecuadorean sierra, the line that runs from Cuenca to Podocarpus, and it can be reserved alone. October to December, and again in March, tend to be the least wet months on this slope, though wet here is a matter of degree rather than of season.
Reserve this with the officeNothing is charged here. The form stays open at any hour and a person writes back inside one working day.
Where the mountains stop being dry
Podocarpus is the point at which the eastern range gives up its dryness. Rain that never reaches the Cuenca side arrives here off the basin and falls on almost every slope, so the forest starts low and does not stop: tree ferns, bromeliads on every branch, moss thick enough to hold water like a sponge. The park runs from about nine hundred metres up to more than three thousand, which is why the bird lists are long and why nobody sees most of it. Loja itself, an hour to the north, is a working provincial town of roughly two hundred thousand people, dry, bright and ordinary, and it is the base rather than the point.
How the five days divide
Two of the five days start before six, because the first two hours are when the forest is loudest and the cloud has not yet closed the ridges. Walking is on narrow wet trails of roots and clay, rarely more than four or five hours, and it is slippery rather than steep. One day stays low at the eastern entrance where the ground is warmer and the insects are serious. One is spent in and around Loja: a market, a music school, a long lunch, dry clothes. The fifth is held loose. Afternoons are usually rain, so they are usually indoors, and the lodge has a covered deck for exactly that.
A full day on the road
This segment carries a move mark of 3, which means a full day of travelling into it. From the end of the first half the road runs south along the spine of the range, about two hundred and fifty kilometres of switchbacks and small towns, and it takes most of a day with stops. It is not a hard road but it is a long one, and it lands you somewhere noticeably warmer and wetter than where you started. If you take this segment alone, you arrive in the region under your own arrangements and the operator collects you. The office arranges no air travel and no sea passage, and has no contract with any carrier.
Counting the figure, item by item
From $1,710 per person, two sharing a double room, in US dollars. Inside: five nights split between a lodge at the forest edge and a hotel in town, breakfast daily, three guided days with a naturalist who works this park, park fees, the overland leg from the first segment or the transfer from the regional airport, and rubber boots, which the lodge lends. Outside: getting to Ecuador and home again, most lunches and all dinners, drinks, laundry, tips, and single occupancy, which the operator quotes on request. The operator bills you in its own name and on its own terms. This office never takes money from you and holds no card details; its commission is paid by the operator once the trip is done.
| Nights | 5 |
|---|---|
| From | $1,710 per person, two sharing |
| Move into it | a full day |
| Part of | Southern Ecuadorean sierra |
| Taken alone | Yes. Nothing obliges you to take the rest of the line. |
| Inside the figure | Rooms, the ground arrangements named on this page, and the local operating company's own charges. |
| Outside the figure | Getting to the country, meals not named above, anything personal, and anything you add later. |
Asked before people commit
Will I see the rare birds this park is known for?
On a poor morning you get the forest itself at arm's length, which is what the three mornings are built around. Nobody controls this.
Can you arrange my flight into the region?
No. The office arranges nothing that flies and nothing that goes by sea, holds no contract with any carrier, and will not quote you an air fare or hold a seat. Everything it reserves runs on the ground inside the country. Get yourself to Ecuador and to the agreed pick up point, tell the office the date and the hour, and the operator will meet you.
What happens if the road is closed?
Landslides close this road several times a year in the wet months. If that happens the operator reroutes or moves a night, at its own cost where the change is its decision, and it tells you in writing. The office passes the message on the day it gets it. Neither the office nor the operator can promise a road will be open, and neither of them will pretend to.
Segment 2 of 2 on Southern Ecuadorean sierra
You can take this segment on its own and leave the rest of the line alone. Nothing here obliges you to walk the whole thing, and the figure for one piece is the figure for one piece.
Reserve one segment, or a whole line
This form is open at any hour, and whatever reaches it is read by a person who answers inside one working day. Nothing you send commits you, and no figure is charged at this end at any point.