Las Palmas Airbase

July 23rd, 2006

This morning we left for Las Palmas Air Force base, where there was a display and a parade in front of the president.
When we arrived, 2 minutes before it started, there were thousands of people queuing for entry. Luckily for us, Annett’s father is a retired Air Force Commander and we were ushered through the gates and in to a parking space.

As you can see from the photos, the Air Force base has a number of old planes as exhibits around the large plaza with a fountain in its centre. We passed though this plaza to the runways. Thousands of people were lined along the first runway and the procession began. Midway through taking these photos, an airman friend of the family spotted us and took us through closer to the main seating area. The view was not all that better, the backs of airman heads and civilian heads are pretty much the same.

Today is the day of the air force, particularly to honour José Abelardo Quiñones González, a pilot who gave his life on this day in 1914 during the war with Ecuador. After being hit by Ecuadorian artillery fire, crashed his plane into the fortified area, destroying it and completing his mission. He is now immortalised on Peruvian currency.