Day 78 - Fleeced in a church

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The day started well with Hostal Marsella serving up eggs for breakfast while we waited to change rooms... good job too as Sophie had forgotten about the age old rule in South America, no toilet paper down the toilet! The toilet in our old room was blocked and trying to flood so perfect time to move to a new room with shared bathroom where we could blame other people!

We headed to the old town from our perfect location between the old and new and after lunch stumbled across the Plaza Grande... swamped with police officers, riot gear and all. We still have no idea why there were so many(getting very used to seeing guns... every shop security guard has one) but apparently the President carries out business inside the Palacio del Gobierno on the Plaza so assume it had something to do with that.

After visiting Plaza San Francisco, we headed into Iglesia La Mercas, Quitos newest church finished in 1742. Inside the active church we spotted numerous paintings before we were approached by "Padre Joe". Apparently having studied in Bristol we were effectively given a private tour of the church, pointing out the art, woods, Inca organ (hmmm...) and carvings. Only when he showed us the original doors, try to give us religious stamps and ask for church donations did we get suspicious. Apparently, the change in my pocket "is not enough" and generously we could give the donation to Father Joe and not in the donation box at the entrance. Luckily our money was packed away so $1.08 was all he was getting, well dressed thief or not!

On our way back to the hostel we visited the central market, but were slightly disappointed that there wasn't an abundance of stands and the meals were no cheaper than restaurants.

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