When we were travelling in Colombia, we heard you could go to Popayan and to see condors up close. Close enough to even feed them! That sounded pretty fun so we took to the internet to figure out how one can do that.
What we found however was very limited. There’s next to no information regarding anything condor. We didn’t know where to go or how to get there, when would be a good time to see them, did we have to pay, or even if it was possible.
Regardless, we went down to Popayan in the hope of seeing them anyway. We stayed in a hostel called HOSTAL. Here we met the owner (who only spoke Spanish) and did our best to decipher what he was telling us about the condors. Our limited Spanish kept us from figuring out all the details, but we got a good idea that this adventure was possible.
Here’s what we learned:
•In order to see the Condors you need to be in Popayan…. Check
•You will need to wake up for about 5am in order to get a collectivo from LOCATION. This should cost about $4
•the bus will bring you out of Popayan about 2 hours into the mountains
•you’ll reach a small town on the main road that has a police checkpoint. Hop out here
•because your entering a national park (hence the police) you’ll need to find a local guide in the town to take you up to the condors
•once you’ve found your guide (for about $8 per person) you’ll ride up with them until you reach the condor feeding platform.
•at around 10am every morning, the condors come to feed. Here you can get up close and personal, getting the chance to feed them hand to beak
Now that’s not what we did, but is what we we’re supposed to do!
We skipped the bus part and took an uber. Don’t ask why, but understand that this lead to quite an eventful day. And no… we didn’t get to see the condors after all of it.
But now you know how to do it, so please send us photos so we can pretend we saw them too.