Pope struggles to show his face in Ecuador

POPE Francis battled strong winds that whipped up his cassock and blew his skullcap off as he arrived in Ecuador today for the start of a seven-day tour of Latin America.

After a 13-hour flight from Rome, he was greeted by children in traditional dress at Mariscal Sucre airport outside the capital Quito.

In a speech in front of President Rafael Correa, the 78-year-old Argentine-born Pope signalled some of the themes for his visit, speaking out against poverty and economic development that damages the environment and harms the poor the most.

The tour will also take him to Bolivia and Paraguay.

Francis, Latin America’s first pontiff, will take a quick flight to the Ecuadorean port of Guayaquil today for a Mass which is expected to draw more than a million people. He will then have lunch with fellow Jesuits and be reunited with the Reverend Francisco Cortes, to whom he entrusted seminarians on study trips before he became Pope.