10 de Agosto Market

The Historical Center of the city of Cuenca has three popular markets: August the 10th, October the 9th and November the 3rd, which curiously represent the three main dates of the process of independence of Ecuador.

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Of these markets, the August the 10th Market is the most central; a total mix of people, smells, colors and flavors. Visiting it may seem like a bizarre experience, but soon after being there this feeling disappears and despite its modernist structure, inside it keeps intact the characteristics of a popular Andean market. It was inaugurated on November 3, 1954.

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Years ago, the Market was remodeled, placing two electric stairs to access the second floor, the food court. And in its facade local artists painted three enormous murals in which they represented the symbols of the city of Cuenca: The Cathedral, the Plaza de los Flores, the Chola Cuencana and the Barranco.

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Tourists are surprised to find escalators in such a popular place. It has become a gastronomic custom for visitors to go to the food stalls on the upper floor, for its low prices and because there they can consume a variety of traditional and typical dishes of Cuenca and Ecuadorian food: the baked pig, potatoes with leather or "papas locas", corn or "mote" in its various preparations, the potato tortilla or "llapingacho", lunches, smoothies and more.

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The August the 10th Market is also famous for its medicinal plants section where it is possible to access an ancestral healing method known as "limpia" (cleaning), a process that has been inherited from generation to generation of herbalists, vendors who know the healing properties of plants.

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Vegetables, meat, crafts, fruits, sweets, all kinds of supplies and above all the spontaneous affection of people for foreigners, are part of this small world.