First taste of South America. A city of 2.7 million that is in full celebration for holy week. Thousands of people around and us tourists are sticking out from a mile away. Warned twice on the first day to watch out by the police.

My hotel was located in the centre of the old city which is where the Good Friday celebrations were located. The stations of the cross were acted out around our block taking 3 hours and 250,000 people came to watch. The procession included thousands of people dressed in purple robes. The purple robes symbolize pertinence and the cones show humility. Traditionally when a person sinned the priest would tell the person to stand outside so the whole street could see they had done wrong. Now days the face is hidden by the veil/cone and participates on Good Friday. Some people carried heavy crosses, put barbed wire around themselves are lashed themselves as well!

Visited the Basilica which was absolutely beautiful and took over 100 years to make. Didn't realise until we started climbing the stairs to the top of the tower how steep it was and the fact it had no mesh or safety netting!!!! Continuing on the religious trail we headed to the Virgin de El Panecilla (statue of virgin). She is made from 7000 piece of aluminum, has wings to evade the devil and is dancing.

On our last day in Quito I finally got to go to the equator. We discovered there are two monuments. Mitad del Mundo was where the French plotted the equator hundreds of years ago. It has a little city around it. 20 years ago it was discovered, using GPS that this is wrong by about 250m. So now there are two.

Food here is pretty good. Tried guinea pig which wasn't as bad as I thought it could be (they cook it whole so the little face just stares at you when you eat it). Also got to eat the famous Faneca soup. It's only eaten in holy week and has 12 ingredients. As our tour guide described, you just open the fridge door and put everything in. Quite yum expect for the cod with it.

Stopped a child from pick pocketing the guy in front of me when we were in a massive crowd. The kid just turned around, gave me a big smile and walked off. Then in the supermarket, I was forced by a guy to put my backpack with my camera in a locker. I noticed him swap keys, and give me the wrong one. He wasn't the official guy either so I asked for my stuff back straight away. He played dumb when the key didn't work, but eventually gave it back. Two experiences that showed me how careful I have to be!

Our tour has begun . There are 8 of us and the leader. Getting prepared tonight as we leave early tomorrow for the Amazon