Bellavista Cloud Forest Lodge and Reserve is a birding and wildlife tourism project built on sound ecotourism foundations. Always looking with a view to long-term conservation of the forest, we strive to have a low impact on natural resources, and a strong impact on people’s awareness of the value of such a cloud forest. Bellavista protects rare species, acts as a source of clean water for lower-lying areas, and importantly also is a place in nature to enjoy, to the bird, to relax, and to discover comfort and good food.
Naturalist/birding guide service is key to what Bellavista offer and this service are included in all the transport-inclusive packages. Guides will lead you on hikes of discovery along the extensive trail system into primary and secondary forest, discovering birds, orchids, bromeliads and the ecosystem of the cloud forest. Exclusive bird guides are always available to enhance your birding Ecuador experience. And again, if you want to explore alone, this is perfectly safe (no wildlife dangers!) on the well-marked trails.
Ecuador Eco Lodge
The Eco Lodge offers 17 rooms, which includes 4 superior rooms with vast views towards Pichincha Volcano and 13 “standard” rooms, which are in reality anything but standard, since we have a Bamboo house, a half-timbered Trailhead / German house, the Tandayapa Suite, Pichincha “Suite”and rooms in our original and emblematic Geodesic Dome. All ecolodge rooms offer great views! Rooms include en suites and have tea/coffee making facilities. The shared bath is also offered in the Dome for the budget-minded and camping is an option too. Student study groups will enjoy the Research Station/Hosteling on offer.
Guests can regard the Lodge as a home base from which to plan and organize their own birding and wildlife excursions, both within its private reserve and beyond in the surrounding region of northwestern Ecuador. (Activities and excursions can be pre-arranged, or arranged on the spot).
Conservation is Bellavista´s driving force. Bellavista is a pioneer of cloud forest preservation and conservation in the Tandayapa Valley, and among the first to conserve such forest in the northwest of Ecuador´s Pichincha province. As the Eco Lodge grew (and grows), so too the number of hectares preserved from deforestation, or recuperated from cattle grazing (to date, over 400 hectares of our own, a further nearly 300 hectares protected through associated conservationist owners. so close to 2000 acres, protected). As of July 2019, Bellavista reserve (347 contiguous hectares) is the first private reserve to gain protected status under Ecuador´s National System of Protected Areas.
Hand in hand with purchasing forest to secure its long-term conservation, and protection of wildlife habitat, are the efforts to offer guided visits with a broad philosophy of interactive education. And people resident in the region have, through Bellavista´s efforts, learnt new ways of living with the forest. Bellavista´s influence has convinced many individuals to change from a forest-resource-extractive way of life, to efforts and jobs that on the contrary allow the forest to survive, creation of reserves, wildlife observation activities, etc.
All scientific studies conducted at a reserve like Bellavista give further importance to its conservation ideals. Bellavista has a small research station and welcomes research scientists and student groups to discover more about the little-known cloud forest ecosystem, and its little –studied wildlife and plants. New species are being discovered (70 new species of Noctuidae moths in 2015!)
Student groups of a variety of ages are welcome to stay and receive study programmes, with the help of Bellavista, but usually run by the guest institution.
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