Leaving the Plaza 10 Km to an old bridge through Rio Hollín for the Parque Nacional Sumaco-Napo-Galeras. To enter the park you need to have permission and a guide. The entry fee is around US$5. Here, you will find a private forest range owned by Orchid Paradise (See contact information above). Approximately 40 minutes from Archidona. The site is a birdwatchers paradise and heaven with such rare birds as the Striated Antbird (found and viewed only here in all of Ecuador's eco-sites), Reddish-winged Bare-eye and various flatbills.

For personal tours, these may be organized by the Izu Mangallpa Urcu (IMU) Foundation, located east of town, 3 km on the road to Galeras. They take you to the forest with a minimum group of two people, charge around US$40 per day for accommodation and day trips. You can also book through a tour operator. See climbing & trekking tour operators.

A mysterious attraction from this area that is worth visiting is the river, located south of Archidona with a very interesting big rock with several petroglyphs carved on it. There are many others similar to this one but smaller around Archidona. These pre-Colombian petroglyphs reflect coded symbols and secret signs, messages unique to only those who wrote them that not even the local Quichua people could understand their true meaning to this day.