In Ecuador’s highlands the festival calendar weaves agriculture and saints’ days. Solar celebrations around June, harvest fiestas in autumn, patron-saint processions in small towns—timing is local; follow municipal notices more than big tourist posters.
Ask before photographing costumes and masks. Alcohol appears at some fiestas, but foreign excess is not “participation.” Make space for children’s processions.
Lodging vanishes on festival nights. Two nights in one town teach more than a single-day drop-in.