Quito

Today was a tour around Quito with our guide Diana.  She was lovely.  We started off at the BVM which you can see at the top of the hill in the main photo.  You get a great view from up there.  She is made of aluminium, it must be quite impressive if she is struck by lightning.  I have put her up as an extra.  The thing that stands out is the ring of snow capped volcanos surrounding Quito.  We then were dropped off at the Basilica from where this photo was taken.  An amazing stone church built in the 1800s.  Instead of gargoyles it has animals from the galapagos (penguins, dolphins, sea lions, iguanas, pelicans, turtles etc) and also from the amazon including cayman, jaguars, monkeys etc.   From there we walked back to the main plaza and visited some other churches.  The Jesuit church, Compana de Jesus is the most amazing thing.  Almost completely clad in gold (no photos unfortunately) it is jaw dropping.  We stopped at the presidential palace and had our photos taken with the guards and then gradually wandered back to the hotel.  John and I went out again and visited another cathedral where you could take photos(I put one in the extras)  and the main square where there was music and dancing. 

We had a relatively quiet night from memory as it was an earlyish start in the morning to go to the Otavalo markets and beyond.