Quito Viejo, the old section of Quito, is a UNESCO site. We went to a few churches- one we really like because it looked very old and had an impressive gold-plated or gold-painted altar. This was the San Francisco church & monastery built in 1553. It also had very old wood planks that were very noisy and was under renovation with a bunch of scaffolding.

We walked up to the big basilica, but it was closed. We will most likely go back since the tower is open to climb up. It looks very old and gothic, but is in fact a new church (started in 1926) built partially out of cinderblock. Instead of gargoyles, it has ducks, anteaters, porcupines, etc.- kind of cute.

Tamara noticed a policeman/soldier in one of the town squares with small machine gun- he had his finger resting on the trigger. It makes us wonder about accidental shootings and if he had the safety on!