Fri–Sun, Oct 23–25 · 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Distrito Quito Design Week
Palacio de Cristal, Itchimbía, Quito. Free with registration: a market of furniture, objects, textiles, and fashion.
Photograph by Cayambe, CC BY-SA 3.0.
October 19, 2026
This Week in Ecuador
Power for the factories, rain on the coast, and a finished runway in Quito.
This weekend in Ecuador
Oct 23–25
Design weekend
Sat, Oct 24 · from 10:00 a.m.
De verde a maduro
Plaza El Quinde, La Mariscal, Quito. Free, with twenty restaurants, a bolón contest, and live music through Salsa en el Solar.
Photograph by Pedro M. Martínez Corada, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sat, Oct 24 · 6:30 p.m.
Gypsy jazz
Teatro Centro de Arte, Guayaquil. Die Drahtzieher with Sepia Jazz Band, $15 or two for $25.
Guayaquil on Viator Teatro Centro de Arte
Photograph by Jordan Fischer, CC BY 2.0.
Fri–Sun, Oct 23–25 · 3:00 p.m.
Driving Miss Daisy
Antonio Vega Muñoz 14-46, Cuenca. In English, and the run continues through November 1.
Photograph by Pablo Zuñiga, CC BY 4.0.
Sat, Oct 24 · morning
Otavalo’s Saturday market
From Quito. Plaza de los Ponchos, the textile market, fills on Saturday.
Photograph by David Adam Kess, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Industry blackouts, homes spared
Since October 12, about 185 large industrial customers and about 8,900 medium-voltage ones have been off the public grid three days a week, and on October 17 the Energy Ministry extended that for a second week while keeping homes, hospitals, and schools off the schedule. The Mazar reservoir was only seven meters above its minimum, down more than four meters in seven days, and power from Colombia covered under 1 percent of demand that weekend.
No household cuts are scheduled. A charged power bank is still cheap insurance.
Photograph by Jfbeltranr, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Red alert, and flooding on the coast
From the red-alert declaration through 10 p.m. on October 18, the risk office counted 395 rain events, 141 of them still open, and Esmeraldas has the most active emergencies, with flooding in Eloy Alfaro, Esmeraldas, and Muisne. The government points people to the Alístate Ecuador viewer for road status and weather alerts.
The wet coast and the dry dams are the same El Niño. Check the roads before you drive it.
Photograph by AnitaAD, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Tortuga Bay closed in the afternoons
The Galápagos National Park closed Tortuga Bay, on Santa Cruz, from 3 to 6 p.m. on October 13, 14, and 15 because INOCAR forecast heavy surf, after closing it from 1:30 p.m. on October 10 and 11. Operators are also watching a strengthening El Niño that can cut food for marine iguanas and penguins and force a change of itinerary.
Do the Tortuga Bay walk in the morning.
Photograph by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quito’s last runway day of 2026 is done
On Saturday, October 17, Quiport suspended flights from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for the tenth and final day of its 2026 preventive maintenance, while the terminal stayed open. The work covered about 47,480 square meters of runway, taxiways, aprons, and landside areas.
No more planned runway days this year. If a rebooking left you with a late landing, have a car waiting.
Photograph by TomasVial, CC0.
The 2026 jubilado visa, in numbers
The pension test is three basic wages, $1,446 a month in 2026, with another $250 for each dependent, and the figure moves again in January 2027 with the new basic wage. Filing is online through e-VISAS, a $50 fee due by 11:55 p.m. Ecuador time the same day plus $270 when the visa is granted, and applicants 65 and older pay half.
If your pension is close to the line, check the figure the day you file.
Photograph by Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cuenca market prices, before Difuntos
At Cuenca’s Feria Libre, a box of apples went from $28 to $34, a tray of eggs from $3.10 to $4.50, a box of blackberries from $4 to $5.50, and a 100-pound sack of rice from $49 to more than $61 in three months. Vendors blame coastal goods hit by El Niño, colada morada fruit is up for the season, and the Azuay governor says speculating middlemen will be sanctioned, with a confidential complaints window at the Intendencia.
Colada morada season is here, and so are the prices.
Photograph by A.Davey, CC BY 2.0.
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Sangay and Reventador
The Smithsonian and USGS weekly report for October 8–15 counted 102 to 249 explosions a day at Sangay from October 8 to 12, ash-and-gas plumes up to 1.6 kilometers above the summit, and incandescent material as far as 2 kilometers down the southeast drainage, on a yellow alert. The October 15–16 daily report had 92 explosions at Reventador, plumes to 600 meters, and incandescent rockfalls to 1.1 kilometers, on orange, while Sangay stayed yellow; both sit in the eastern cordillera, off the roads between Quito, Cotopaxi, and Quilotoa.
Neither changes a city plan. Check the ash note before a Cotopaxi day.
Photograph by Dabit100, CC BY-SA 4.0.
