The castle was intended to be presented as a gift to king Alfonso XIII upon his arrival but destiny had other plans for the castle´s fate.  Rospigliosi working hard on the castles construction came across certain building restrictions when he filled with the local municipality to grant him permission to dig a moat around the perimeter of the castle which would in turn serve the function of the installed drawbridge entrance (which was to be the icing on the cake if you will).  Unfortunately for Rospigliosi the municipality more than likely having had enough with the elaborate conception of a medieval castle in district denied the grant for a moat, seeing it as excessive. 

To make matters worse than they already were, when the construction of the castle was finally completed news of a Spanish revolution was announced with king Alfonso XIII and the Republic overturned.  The fall of the Spanish Monarchy led to the inevitable and for obvious reasons cancellation of the king´s scheduled trip to Peru.  When Rospigliosi received word on the situation in Spain he decided it was time to cut his loses and fold the cards he had held is hand,  seeing no other options for this newly constructed castle Rospigliosi took the only decision he had left and used the castle as his new residence where he and his family resided there after.  The castle from that moment on was known as Rospigliosi Castle or Castillo Rospigliosi. 

Today the castle is the under the ownership of the Peruvian Airforce (FAP = Fuerzas Aereas del Peru) and is the site of the Airforce´s Escuela Superior de Guerra Aérea or Superior School of Air Warfare.

Here is a link to their site: http://www.fap.mil.pe/instruccion/esfap/nosotros/nosotros.html

After a long day of work, on a Saturday no less, what is the best way to unwind? Three words: food, booze, and friends, I believe that sums up a great Saturday evening.

Last night I went to a Panchamanca party in Lince, where the food was abundant and succulent, the kind of perfection that is only achieved from hundreds of years of tradition. All my friends were there drinking and eating, and just having a good time. I'll admit that it wasn't your average college party, it was more of a laid back kind of party.

The beer was plentiful and at S/.5 who could complain. I did not get drunk...this time and was fairly proud and slightly disappointed in myself, those are the kinds of feelings that people with high expectations have.

Not much else to say so here are some pictures of me being goofy:

So Sunday was a fairly uneventful day given the fact that Saturday night I spent it drinking and dancing with my girlfriend and some friends of mine in Barranco & Lince. We partied in Rustica (not my favorite of places, but the drinks are reasonably priced) which was pretty fun until I was harrassed by one the security guards.

Try to picture this if you will. Here I was, this poor buzzed guy just minding my own business trying to take two full Chops (they are these huge 1L mugs filled with beer ofcourse) to our table when out of nowhere comes this huge dude in a suit and tie. He tries to pull me to one side and actually grabs me which, I was not a fan of by the way. I asked what the problem was and he asked me where I was going with my newly purchased beers? weird question when your inside a bar/club. I told him I was following some friends to our new table. He asked me where that was but unfortuantely for me I didn't know exactly where that was, so I told him "that I didn't know and that I was following my friends there".

By this time the guy was getting pretty impatient with me and just kept asking me over and over again where my table was, this really started to piss me off so I told him he should stop talking and try listening since he obviously didn't here me the first time. Finally after 5 minutes of ridiculous back and forth nonsense, my girlfriend shows and with two other guards and some wait staff. They all asked what the problem was and before you know it what was once an arguement between two became a huge orgy of a argument. I finally got fed up and handed the two chops to the idiot of a guard and told him to take them to the table. This must have really pissed him off because he looked like he wanted to beat the crap of me ( he probably could have too). Finally some manager type comes along and escorts us to our table and the whole thing was finally ended in a very anti-climatic way.

After a few hours we left that joint and headed to Voce which is a pretty swanky club in Lince on Av. Petit Thours. The place charges a S./20 cover which is fine I guess. The drinks are actually quite expensive for what you get. The same beer in Rustica costs S./7 more making it fairly uneconomic in comparison. The dance floor is fairly big but that doesn't really mean anything in Lima since by 12am - 2am the dance floors are usually so packed you can barely move. We hung out at Voce for a while and the headed out around 3am.

The next morning I woke around 11am, still in a bit of a fog from the night before. My father and I hungry headed out to Lurin a town located just south of Lima near the Pachacamac ruins. According to my father Lurin has some of the best chicarron in Lima, even though I find the chicarron in Chancay to be better. Along the way I happened to come across some horses that were grazing along the side of the road. There is a place right next to the Pantanos de villa which is located by Av. Huaylas right before it merges with the Panamericana Sur (south). There you can go horseback riding along the beach for a reasonable price (I can't remember how much exactly). I do remember it being a lot of fun the last time I did it with my friends and family.




The above picture was taken yesterday when I was driving down Av. Sucre in Magdalena del Mar yesterday when I drove by this huge church/monestary, not really sure which but I really grabbed my attention. I chose black and white because I thought it would make a more dramatic photo. The colors were to washed out which is why I chose to take the photo in B&W.