Located on a hill just outside Otavalo, it takes less than 2 hours to get to Condor Park from Quito. It’s best to get there by car since once at Otavalo, it’s quite an off the beaten path route to the site. Or you could take a bus to Otavalo and then take a taxi/Uber1 up the hill. You may have to walk the way back down which would take about an hour. We made our way by car and took the Panamericana highway to make a stop at the Quitsato Sundial. This site is about 1 hour 20 minutes down the highway just before reaching Cayambe. You can take a bus from Quito to Cayambe and get off at La Bola de Guachalá. If going by car, there is plenty of parking available. We first made a stop at La Bola de Guachalá where there is the welcome sign for Cayambe. Across the road, there is also a monument dedicated to the equatorial line and the peace between Ecuador and Korea. Quitsato is then a short walk away and this site is a large sundial located at exactly latitude 0.0, whereas the Middle of the World Monument is slightly off. It costs 2 USD2 to visit the site and a guide gives a history of the sundial and how it works. After the talk, we walked around to take some pictures and then continued on the highway towards Otavalo.
After driving for about 35 minutes just before getting to Otavalo and after passing Lake San Pablo, we got off the highway to climb up the hill to Condor Park. Most of these roads are paved and signs direct you to the site. Make sure you follow the signs since they will take you through paved roads whereas Google Maps may take you via steep dirt roads. There is plenty of parking available at the site and entrance costs 3.50 USD each. There is a scheduled show of a bird taking flight and we were told there would be one at 4 PM.
We got there just before 4 PM but they had started the show earlier so we only caught the end of it. The show takes place in an amphitheater at the end of the park. The handler had a small hawk and an eagle. The birds had already flown when we got there and he was finishing up his talk. After he was done, people were invited to take pictures with the birds. We were only allowed to hold the small hawk as the larger eagle wasn’t fully trained yet. After taking pictures, we went around the park to take a look at the birds. The highlight is the eagles and the condors. A pair of condors had just been given a piece of meat and we got to see them fighting over it.
As we walked around, outside some of the cages there were panels with the story of the rescued bird. We spent about an hour walking around before heading back to the parking lot. When exiting the site, you get a great view of the Imbabura volcano and Lake San Pablo. The clouds were clearing up a bit as we were leaving so we managed to see almost all of the majestic volcano. On the way down the hill, you also get great views of the tourist town of Otavalo. We drove through the town and then headed back to Quito.
