The flower square of Cuenca

What it is

Cuenca is a highland city in southern Ecuador with a historic centre listed by UNESCO. Beside its blue-domed cathedral is a small square in front of the church and convent of El Carmen de la Asunción. Here, every day, women from the surrounding villages sell flowers under white umbrellas: roses, lilies, carnations, gladioli, orchids in pots and bunches of medicinal herbs. Many wear the embroidered skirts and woven straw hats of the Cuenca region. The cloistered nuns of the convent sell a herbal drink and other remedies through a turning hatch in the wall. It is a tiny market, but one of the prettiest anywhere.

Before you go

• Mornings are best, and Sundays and feast days have the most stalls.
• Buy something small before taking photographs of a seller, and ask first.
• The cathedral towers nearby can be climbed for a view down onto the square.

The flowers you will see

RoseWoody perennial plants with showy, often fragrant flowers in many coloursLilyTall bulb flowers with large, colourful blooms in many gardens and culturesCarnationA fragrant flower with ruffled petals, grown worldwide for decoration and meaningGladiolusTall, showy flower spikes grown from corms, known as sword liliesOrchidA vast family of colourful, often fragrant flowers found almost everywhere on earth

More in Ecuador

🇪🇨 Cayambe · All yearThe rose farms of CayambeA valley on the equator north of Quito where roses grow slowly at altitude into very long stems with large heads. 🇪🇨 Quito · All yearOrchid houses of the Quito Botanical GardenA compact garden in La Carolina park that walks you through Ecuador's ecosystems and into two houses full of orchids.