Guard dogs and rock n roll

We spent our last day in Lima walking around the city to various museums. On our way to the national museum of art, one of the tourist police saw us checking a map and asked where we were headed. After showing us the quickest way to get to the museum, he told us that we were just in time for the changing of the guard. We decided to stick around to see what it was all about. People had begun to gather across the street from the massive government building on the plaza in order to watch the ceremony; everyone was silently watching the courtyard, while guards with riot gear stood in the street, and military-looking police stood outside the gates. Everyone seemed respectful, except for a lone, black, stray dog that was sleeping without a care against one of the columns in the gated enclosure around the focus of our attentions. Soon a marching band in full regalia emerged and began to duck step their way around the courtyard while playing some kind of marching tune.
Soon they ascended onto a platform just inside the gate, and silence fell. I had a feeling we were in for something solemn and wonderful; even the dog saw something important coming and moved a few feet over so that he could resume sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk so that he could see. One of the guards lightly kicked him, but this only succeeded in making the dog half-heartedly raise his head, look at the man, and then lay back down. Then the band started to play. The tune sounded familiar, but I couldn´t place it... then it came to me - it was the theme song to Hawaii 5-0. The marching band went full-swing into an enthusiastic composition made up of old rock tunes. Claudia and I suppressed laughter, just in case this was some kind of serious event we weren´t getting, but then saw that it was just a chance for everyone to enjoy some live music.
We lingered for a while, and then went on to visit the art museum and an archaeological museum in pueblo libre. Hours later, we returned via the plaza where we had witnessed the ceremony, and I found it very satisfying to see that the lone black dog was still dozing, unperturbed in the middle of the sidewalk in front of the palatial building, being guarded by the same militaristic policeman with rifle in hand.

Greetings from Lima

We arrived at our hostel last night around 1030pm. Its a really nice spot in central Lima, with multiple rooms, a terrace and restraunt on the roof where they have large tortoises roaming around the floors eating crumbs, and an internet cafe on the ground floor. We had a nice, cheap meal of fried fish, potatoes, and white rice, washed down with some beers called Cristal at a local bodega-like place. We only went there to buy some waters, but they heard us talking about food, asked what we wanted, sat us down, and fed us. Pretty awesome. Claudia is speaking to me in Spanish only, so I am slowly but surely remembering things Ive forgotten.
Today we walked around the city to get our barings, and see what was in our area. We hit up el barrio chino first for some Peruvian Chinese food for lunch, and just to see the sites. From there there we went to the cathedral and monestary of San Fransisco, where they had an absolutely amazing old library of manuscripts dating back to the 14th century; sadly, no photography was allowed on the tour, so I have no pictures of the place. We also were shown around the catacombs under the cathedral, and througout the monestary. Our guide was very nice, and spoke English fairly well. After that, we walked around a nearby park called el parque de murales, where they had all kinds of neat things for children, and an outdoor bandstand with a running track around; much better than having an ipod on for your jog!