October in Cuenca means one thing on the food calendar: colada morada, the deep-purple spiced fruit drink, and guaguas de pan, the sweet bread dolls baked for Día de los Difuntos (2 November). This year the tradition is getting a creative shake-up, and it's a good excuse to plan a trip around Ecuador's most atmospheric food season.
Start at Gaby Lazo Atelier de Postres, across from Parque Calderón in the Casa del Parque, where baker Gabriela Lazo is selling eight flavours of guaguas through 4 November. Alongside classic fillings like manjar with blackberry compote and guava with cream cheese, the new-for-this-year option pairs maracuyá with semi-sweet chocolate and a hint of orange. There's also a tasting box of six miniature guaguas if you can't commit.
Over at Pastel Delirio on Mariano Cueva and Bolívar, pastry chef Melina Torres has slow-cooked the drink's traditional fruits and spices into a colada morada concentrate — think jam-like and spoonable. She's mixing it into cold matcha lattes, and it works just as well on toast or ice cream. It's on sale through November.
If you'd rather drink your colada with alcohol, Cuenca brewery Asiringui has brewed Morada Colada, an award-winning Berliner Weisse built on the same fruit and spice blend as the traditional beverage. The tart, light beer style apparently takes the spices beautifully; find it via Happy Market, Roku, Jama and Biela.
Timing a visit for late October also lines up with the TitiriCuenca International Puppet Festival, its 16th edition running 18–25 October. Eight shows from Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Argentina play theatres and open-air stages including the Museo Pumapungo plaza and Parque Paraíso. Outdoor shows are free; indoor tickets are $4 for children, seniors and disabled visitors, $6 for everyone else, from Galería Ayni or buenplan.com.ec.
A couple of practical notes if you're in town this month: the access road to the Turi lookout is closed for roughly 30 days due to a sinkhole, so use the detour via the Turi jail from the 12 de Octubre roundabout. And EMOV parking cards are temporarily unavailable while a new supply is procured, so avoid the numbered blue spaces unless you have a card.
For longer-term planners, a 28,000-square-metre shopping centre called El Challuabamba is under construction on the vía Cuenca-Azogues in Chaullabamba, with 50 stores, a Coral Hipermercado anchor, cinemas and bowling, slated to open around May or June 2027.
Why it matters: Día de los Difuntos is one of the most distinctive cultural moments in the Ecuadorian Andes, and Cuenca — a compact, walkable UNESCO-listed colonial city — is the best place to experience it. The food is seasonal by nature, so a trip between late October and early November catches guaguas, colada and the festival all at once.
