City Guardian

Today, before we were picked up to go to the airport at 4pm, we spent the day on a hop-on hop-off bus tour of Quito city. It was a good quick way to see the main attractions of city, one of which you see above.

This here is El Panecillo- a 200m high hill of volcanic-origin, located between southern and central Quito. Its peak is at an elevation of 3,016 metres above sea level. In 1976, the Spanish artist Agustín de la Herrán Matorras was commissioned to build a 45-metre-tall aluminum monument of a madonna which was assembled on a high pedestal on the top of Panecillo. It is made of seven thousand pieces of aluminium. The virgin stands on top of a globe and is stepping on a snake, and locals claim that she is the only one in the world with wings like an angel.

So excited to get to Lima and see Damian and the others and begin the next leg of our adventure!