You can see Marco standing waiting for Cynthia and myself. The guards are in uniform and when we were inside a person of high rank came through in a car and the bugular called him in and the men presented arms. They give tours through the Fort.
This is called the Kings Tower and was considered as part of the defensice scheme of Reao Felipe as a fortress inside the fortress. The fortified tower has three levels (base, supporting pillar and baywindow), and there are cannon platforms in two of them. the first one has 24 iron cannons and the second one has 8 brass cannons. The internal construction has a labyrinth shape to confound the ones who tried to get inside.
The Queen's tower (no picture) was equiped with ammunition deposits, provisions and it even had its own water well. One of the most interesting details is the dungeor. It has a semi-circular shape, where the prisoners culd hardly stand up and they had to spend all the time that way in almost utter darkness. In the middle of the semi-circle there was the room of the Guards, where a curious "intelligence" system of that time operated; some holes in the wall communicated with the dungeon and the soldiers were able to listen to any comments made by the prisoners and then they could take advantage of such information. The holes had a special round shape that avoided the entrance of light and people would not realize that they were being heard.
We went down inside and also way up on top. Will show you some of what was inside. It was used as a place to put prisoners not so many years ago.
My son in law, Marco's dad, conscripted him into the Army and he decided he didn't want to be there so went AWOL, he was 15 years old. Anyway when they went AWOL they were put in this place, will show you a picture I took of Cynthia and Marco today. The area they were put in was dark, only a little light was allowed in and it was circular and only about 2 and 1/2 feet wide, you couldn't lay down, you could squat with your knees on one wall and your back on the other wall and try to rest. He said they would take them out once a week and take them to the center (was ground at that time, now it is paved) and they would hose them off. No bathroom facilities so you can imagine the smell!
Marco spent 15 days here and he did what they said. :) He went from there to the Jungle where he spent most of his military time. He learned to survive on the land and it was not a nice time. We didn't spend to much time in this narrow place it didn't go in a streight line but curved around and they put about 20 men in this area.
Under another building into the Museum of Ancient Weapons and they had lots of rifles, handguns, tht range from guns and revolvers which used muzzleloading and sparking system up to the semi-automtic modern ones. The second room we see the development of long weapons such as rifles and carbines and the third room was accompanying weapons: machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars.
notice this small pistol and the two knives on the end of it.
This is under the "Governor's House" Area destined to give accommodation to the officer in command of the fortress. It is located beneath the Knight of Twelve ; this showes some Peruvain US military men considered Heroes.
In this area you will find references to different periods starting with the native arm of the Incas Empire, then the colony eminent people and precursors of the independence and heroes of the republican army, as well as the partons of each weapon and specialty of the Peruvain Army. As we passed into the last room around the cornor was a Pirate in full uniform. As we looked at him we decided he was a real person and sure enough he "came to life" giving everyone a fright and a good laugh. Here are some picture of what transpired.
He came off his pedistal and started speaking to the people around, in spanish of course so didn't understand him. When he talked to me and asked where I was from and I replied "Oregon" he knew where that was! You can see our guide to the right by the door. She is in the military.
He, being a pirate, had to rob us and it cost us 2 Solos and that was to pay our way out but the cost of having our picture taken with him. He took my had then asked me "where are my coins?" and I put the required solos into his hand. Marco had given me the change.
He in turn gave every one an eye patch and this was his idea of a pose.
Cynthia wasn't going to have her picture taken but he talked her into it and told her, "for you it is free!" He was a good actor, am wondering if he was military too. Now will go up on the Kings Tower and show you the view from there.
The harbor you can see the ships. Directly below is a park with police and military vehicles. Also it is the Navy's officer club to the right. I am not to the top yet.
Looking to the left you will see the area that Marco's equipment comes to Port, when he ships things from the US.
Notice the big islands out in the ocean.
So you and see how high up we are and you can see out of the Fort and to the City of Lima. Marco drove us through some really nice areas of Lima, where they close the streets into it and crime is not there, no graffiti on anything.
This is to show you how much higher we are then Marco. He didn't want to go to the top with us. Remember the dates on the pictures are one day behind for some reason known only to the camera. Next we went to another area along the coast, where he showed us how the city is lower than the ocean, like you find in Lousiana. They are building a wall to help keep the water from flooding that part of the city. We had lunch there will show you what we ate.
Cynthia and I shared a meal, too much for one person. It was a fish soup called
Suddo, made from tomatoes, onions, kelp, and other seasonings but the fish was Shark. Marco had Ceviche, raw fish in three different sauces. Yes I tride two of the fish with sauce, just not the one in red sauce as it would have been to hot for my mouth. It was wonderful, the fish so tender, melt in your mouth good. Not something I would have ordered but glad to have the oppertunity to taste it.
You can see the fish in the three sauces, served with a slice of Yam, corn and Yuca slice. There is more hot sauce and lemon and don't know what the white thing is beside the lemon.
You don't see the fish, it is under the tomatoes, onions and kelp. The soup was very tasty and the fish wonderful. (Shark) we too had the Yucu slices.
After we ate we went back to the school to get Dumenico so will show you a picture of the Military School he attended.
This school has at least 1000 students, all boys. When we left Dumenico there this morning the new students were there, all in suits and anxious to be there.
Dumenico and Marco Sr.
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