QUITO, ECUADOR (02/05/09)
Having heard that you can climb the towers of La BasÃlica del Voto Nacional, a large gothic church in Quito, we decided to pay it a visit.
It was intricately decorated with many carvings. Many of them were of native Ecuadorian animals such as these tortoises.
We are not sure exactly what these are possibly the marine iguanas that live on the Galapagos Islands.
Inside the church was enormous with this incredibly high arched ceiling.
Half way up the 218 steps we stopped to look over a balcony.
There were huge stained glass windows of many different designs.
On each of the four sides of the church was one of these huge circular windows.
The view from the top of the church roof, but not the towers. In the distance you can see what turned out to be a hail storm blowing in.
To access one of the towers we had to cross this wooden plank inside the eaves of the church roof.
The last part of the climb to the tower involved climbing these steep metal ladders. Not as easy as it looks in a hail storm.
Adam went very high up, you can just see his head in between two gargoyles. Liz had asked him to lean over for the photo, what she didn´t realise was that the wall he was leaning over was only just higher than his knees. 
One of the views from the top of the tower.
Climbing back down.
Next we climbed up into one of the clock towers.
One of the clocks from the outside.
It seems that there is torrential rain every afternoon in Quito. Luckily Liz is always prepared!
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