Today was our first full day in Ecuador and we got to explore its capital city Quito! After eating breakfast and leaving our hotel, we spent the morning at the church and museum of San Francisco or St. Francis. Since it’s Sunday, there was a service happening while we were at the church but we were still able to see how gorgeous it is. In the main part of it, everywhere you look is gold and you can see some sort of religious figure like an angel or saint. The museum was filled with paintings, statues, and other pieces of art relating to St. Francis and other parts of Christianity. One of my favorite pieces was “Cristo Difunto” (pictured below) by José Olmos which is sculpture depiciting the crucifixion of Jesus. What was really interesting is if some sort of light is shining on the sculpture and you’re looking at it from the right angle, his heart looks like it’s beating. We also had the chance to go up to where the church choir sings which gave an awesome view of the church from above.

After that, we walked around the city and saw vendors and musicians all over. There were also dogs everywhere with the cutest outfits on. We went for lunch and then got to go to a chocolate tasting at Yumbos Chocolate. I have always been a strictly milk chocolate person but I think I’m starting to warm up to cacao percentages greater than 30%. My favorite was the 70% chocolate and 30% sugar that had just the right amount of sweetness. I bought some of their chocolate to take home and then we had free time to go to another famous church in Quito: the Basilica del Voto Nacional. We did walk up 16 flights of stairs to see the view from the top but I think it was definetly worth it. If we weren’t able to see all of Quito then, we had to have seen it all at the Virgen del Panecillo monument. It’s located at the top of the El Panecillo hill and we decided to take a taxi up there. Talking to the taxi driver on the way up there made me feel much more confident in my Spanish skills since I could mostly understand everything he was saying and could respond back. Good thing all those years of Spanish classes weren’t for nothing! I luckily wasn’t feeling any altitude sickness and got to just enjoy the nice day.