The Pope has has wrapped up the first day of a gruelling three-nation South American trip after greeting tens of thousands of jubilant people who lined the streets in Ecuador.

The journey, which will also see Pope Francis travel to Bolivia and Paraguay, is the first visit by a pontiff to the country in three decades.

An estimated half a million people were on roadsides to catch a glimpse of the pontiff as he took his Popemobile into the capital of Quito.