Photos By Date| Lima, the "New" Capital | 1 | 2 | 3 |
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Palacio de Gobierno — The Government Palace, at the Plaza de Armas, as the changing of the guard begins. |
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Changing of the Guard — The musicians stand inches in front of the spectators, trumpets literally poking through the fence in our faces. This baritone player is fortunate to have his music book to shield him from the fact that the trumpet player didn't use deodorant today. |
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Changing of the Guard — Now the one inexplicable thing about the changing of the guard here is that all of their songs are played in three. This makes for a very unnatural marching style of leg down-leg up-swing, which makes it a trivial matter to just go over and push them over with a finger when storming the palace. It's not a case of choosing songs that were written that way: they change them. Even the infamous El Condor Paso, the Peruvian folk song made famous by Simon and Garfunkel, was butchered up into three-four, making it the most unnatural version among the other 75 variations we'd hear each day. |
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Changing of the Guard — As you can see, many aren't very good at the whole marching-in-three thing, either. |
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Iglesia San Francisco — Beautiful baroque church and convent, not as famous for its tilework and catacombs as it is for being the premiere hangout for pigeons. (Note all the black specs.) |
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Museum of the Inquisition — Just when we thought we'd seen everything...Lima boasts the Museum of the Spanish Inquisition, located where the tribunals were held from 1584 and on. The exhibits include the restoration of actual holding cells and torture equipment used here, along with displays explaining the history of the inquisition and its impact on the region, although I find it lets the Catholics off a tad easy. A very strange homage, indeed. |
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Museum of the Inquisition — And it the displays weren't enough, there are also models such as this one, illustrating how the various torture devices worked, complete with pain-stricken wax figures. |
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Museum of the Inquisition — "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Cardinal, fetch...the rack!" |
