Fri, Oct 9 · 8:30 a.m.
The student parade
Guayaquil. From Parque La Victoria to the Malecón, for the city’s 206th year.
Photograph by Freddy eduardo, CC BY-SA 4.0.
October 12, 2026
This Week in Ecuador
New flights, a hail night in the capital, and the bridges still left in the year.
This weekend in Ecuador
Oct 9–11
Guayaquil Independence
Sat, Oct 10
Capilla del Rosario reopens
Santo Domingo, Quito. The murals are back after three months of work.
Photograph by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sat, Oct 10 · 1 p.m.–midnight
Rotofest
Puente Roto, Cuenca. Free, on the broken bridge above the Tomebamba.
Photograph by Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Fri–Sun evenings · through Oct 14
Escenarios del Mundo
Teatro Pumapungo, Cuenca. The theatre festival is in its last days.
Photograph by Pablo Zuñiga, CC BY 4.0.
Sat or Sun · a full day
Cotopaxi for the day
From Quito. Laguna Limpiopungo when the cloud lifts. Not a summit.
Photograph by Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Air Canada is back in Quito
Air Canada returns to Quito this December, with Montreal three times a week from December 4 and Toronto once a week from December 5. Montreal lands at 1:05 a.m. and Toronto at 12:10 a.m., and both routes are seasonal through March 2027.
Those are late-night landings. Book a private airport car before you fly.
Photograph by TomasVial, CC0.
A record hail night in Quito
On October 7, hail piled 60 to 80 centimeters on the Av. Atahualpa overpass and stopped traffic in the north of the city. The Metro ran only part of the line for a few hours, then restored service, with La Pradera station still closed that evening.
Pack a rain shell. Afternoon storms are ordinary in October.
Photograph by Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Rosario chapel reopens
The Capilla del Rosario at Santo Domingo reopens on Saturday, October 10, after about three months of work on murals damaged by leaks. The chapel sits inside a Dominican church that has been part of the old town since the colonial centuries.
The plaza is the easy stop. The chapel is why you go inside.
Photograph by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0.
A daily hop, Guayaquil to Cuenca
Avianca has put a daily nonstop on sale between Guayaquil and Cuenca, starting November 1. The flight is about fifty minutes, once each way.
A useful hop if you are already on the coast and would rather skip the bus.
Photograph by Pablo Zuñiga, CC BY 4.0.
The long weekends still ahead
Guayaquil’s independence gives Friday, October 9, through Sunday off, and the next bridge runs Saturday, October 31, through Tuesday, November 3, for the Day of the Dead and Cuenca. Friday, November 20, is not on the standing calendar: Decree 507 suspends that workday nationwide, and the hours are not made up.
Cuenca hotels for the November bridge go first.
Photograph by David Adam Kess, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cuenca, on the bridge
Rotofest is free on Saturday, October 10, from 1 p.m. until midnight on Puente Roto. Escenarios del Mundo still has evenings at Teatro Pumapungo through Wednesday, October 14.
The music is the easy night. The plays are why you stay past the weekend.
Photograph by Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sangay and Reventador
The Smithsonian and USGS weekly report for September 24–30 logged new eruptive activity at Sangay, while Reventador was still erupting, as it has for years. Both sit in the eastern cordillera, off the roads between Quito, Cotopaxi, and Quilotoa.
Neither changes a city plan. Still look at the ash note before a Cotopaxi day.
Photograph by Dabit100, CC BY-SA 4.0.
