Quito

The first stop on our city tour this morning was El Panecello (the small loaf of bread) which is a volcanic peak. It was originally known as Yavirac by the indigenous people and once housed a sun temple, destroyed by Spanish. The 30m high statue of Mary that overlooks the city was built in 1975 and is made up of 7,400 pieces of aluminium.

Quito's historic centre is fabulous. It is the largest, and one of the best preserved, in South America. We strolled down (part of) Calle Garcia Moreno also known as the street of the seven crosses where we saw 5 of them. We spent time wandering round Independence Square (known as Plaza Grande) which is home to the Presidential Palace, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Quito, the Archbishop's Palace, and the Municipal Palace. We visited San Francisco Plaza, a huge cobblestone square which is built on Inca ruins. The beautiful white facade the San Francisco Church and Monastery dominates this lovely space.

La Compañía church is pure Baroque opulence. Construction on this Jesuit church began in 1605 but took 160 years to complete which isn't surprising. It's almost completely covered in gold - gilded stucco, gold leaf, gold-painted wooden carvings. It's a tad over the top for me, still you can't fail to be amazed by the skill of the artists.

We finished the tour with a chocolate tasting experience in Yumbo and obviously had to buy some.

This afternoon we took the metro back to the historic centre to explore some more. The metro system is a very impressive single line that runs north/south. A ticket for a single journey is only 45 cents regardless of the distance.

Having seen the arrival of Alianza Lima football team at the airport yesterday we discovered earlier they are staying in our hotel when we got back to find reporters and film crews everywhere. They are due to play Universidad Catolica tomorrow in the last 16  of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana.