Lima!

We are in Lima now...and almost home. We will home dinner time May 1st! Although we heard lots of bad things about Lima, we have enjoyed our time here. By chance we were in the main square when we caught what we thought was a changing of the guard at the presidential palace. However, it turned out to be a giant military parade and traditional dance show because the president of Peru himself showed up to give out prizes to race car drivers. We were 20 feet away! How bizarre and unexpected.

The soldiers did a super cool marching sequence/dance show. Lots of rifle throws and spins and fancy footwork. I was impressed. They were pros, completely in sync at all times. The traditional dance was pretty strange though. The dancers like to beat on each other dance style (this is the second time we have seen this now too). We joke they are doing the domestic abuse dance. One of the dancers accidentally got his pant pulled down too by one of the female dancers beating on him. It was a good laugh for the hundreds of people. Poor guy.

The main square with one of the race cars that raced around it after "el Presidente" waved the checkered flag.


Alan García Pérez.

Marching band and riot policeman who we grew quite fond of since he stood looking bored or chatting on his cellphone throughout the whole show. Felt bad for him too though because no one listened to him. Much to our amazement (since riot police, assault vehicles and water canons are just a little threatening to us as Canadians), a little old lady who kept wanting to get closer to the president gave him quite a stern talking to and then promptly ignored him completely and walked right past him.

I am not sure if you can see much in the above pictures...but I will explain them anyway. We went to a Franciscan monastery with a very cool crypt. There were piles of bones, 10 meters deep. Seems to me though, for some reason, there were 10 times as many femurs as pelvic bones, skulls or anything else. As Lima's first cemetery, the crypt holds the bones of 25000 bodies. Strange how monks like to organize and even "decorate" with the bones.

So, I think this will the entry in our blog. Thanks to everyone who read it and we hope to see you all soon!