Quito in 3 days

A 160-year project, finished in 1765, with a carved volcanic stone front and a gilded interior where local craftsmen slipped in Andean suns and plants.

Begun in 1535, weeks after the Spanish founded the city, a vast colonial complex of cloisters and chapels behind a curved staircase after Bramante.

The heart of the old town, framed by the presidential palace, cathedral, archbishop's palace and city hall, around a monument to 10 August 1809.

A neo-Gothic basilica begun in 1892 and never quite finished, whose gargoyles are Ecuadorian animals: iguanas, Galápagos tortoises, condors and armadillos.

A hill closing off the old town to the south, topped since 1975 by a 41-metre winged aluminium Virgin modelled on Legarda's 1734 statue.

One of the oldest lanes in the centre, restored from 2006, where wooden-balconied houses now hold working craftsmen, from spinning-top makers to hatters.

A cable car from the city's western edge up to 3,945 metres, where on clear days you can spot Cotopaxi and Antisana.

A 30-metre monument 26 km north of the city marking the equator as an 18th-century French mission placed it; GPS puts it 240 metres north.