Pope Francis has flown to South America for an eight-day visit to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay. The 78-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church landed Sunday in Ecuador’s capital, Quito. He met there with Ecuador’s president and church officials. Huge crowds gathered along the roads from the airport to the place where Pope Francis will be staying.

More than a million people were expected to attend a religious ceremony led by the pope -- the first South American head of the church -- on Monday in the city of Guayaquil. He was expected to talk in eight languages during the Mass. He will also lead a Mass in Quito on Tuesday.

Later in the trip, the pope will visit a prison in Bolivia, meet with Bolivian trash collectors and stop in a Paraguayan neighborhood where people live in poorly-built shelters.

This is the pope’s ninth foreign trip in two years.