A Stone's Throw

practice your aim. you never know when you'll spy 2 birds at once.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

On Top of the Beginning of the World

Bolivia

In a place you can be torched by the sun one day and then frozen to death at night, respect must be taken.

In that regard I can see why the Incans revered the place I was at. The Isle de la Sol, or, the Island of the Sun, birthplace of the sun, gods of the Incan empire, and the beginning of the Incan Empire itself where their first emperor rose from the Rock of the Puma, sits quite peaceably in the shimmering waters of the southern end of Lake Titicaca, like a gigantic shell just breaching the water to bask in the intense light of the sun.

In the afternoon, I had I climbed Cerro Calvario, the mountain where lay the Path of Remembrance. Weaving its way up a steep cliff is a thin path, marked by stone crosses at regular intervals. To understand Christ's journey and the weight of the cross he bore, you made the pilgrimage to the top, stopping at each cross and placing a stone on the base to mark your passing. As I climbed, I too marked my path with a small stone at each, and it wasn't until I reached the summit that I understood what those Incans saw so many eons ago.

Sitting on a flat rock, next to a dwarfed pine tree that had lived nestled in the rock for centuries, I looked out over the lake, the Isle de la Sol, and understood the gods creation there, the spiritual nature of the place absolutely unavoidable. The luminesant light radiating down to create the millions of sparkles bouncing off the lake was absolutly dazzling. Hours passed as I sat in the soft wind, skin soaking up the light, lungs taking in the clean crisp air. As the sun set, and the thin altiplano air gave rise to one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen, the stars exploded into light overhead.

With a canopy of the most brilliant stars to be seen with the naked eye, you understand why it is called the heavens. Why it could and is worshiped for eons as godly. It is a humbling sight.
They are so far away, and yet dominate the sky night after night, unreachable. Yet there on the mountain, so many thousands of feet in the sky, they seemed almost within reach. Never before had I seen stars that actually twinkled like diamonds, or shooting stars that crossed the Milky Way, and planets visible easily without the air of telescopes. No smog or city lights obscurred this treasure, this heaven.

And as I walked down the Path of Remembrance, I knew I would never forget.

- a C-note.

4 Comments:

  • At 10:34 AM , Blogger joy4one said...

    I almost heard God's chair scraping on His floor in the Great Hall...

    What did it smell like?

     
  • At 10:54 AM , Blogger Caleb Jordan Schulz said...

    It smelled right. The smell you get when something hasn't been tainted yet...the deep countryside, the air just after it snows, the fresh scent just after rainfall. Those things. But above all, it was air like we were meant to breathe. Utterly refreshing.

    - Caleb

     
  • At 6:49 AM , Blogger Patchalito said...

    Hey! I like my tainted air. Then again, I also like beer cheese soup, so maybe I'm not the best judge of scents. Nobody ever has to tell Caleb to sieze the day...

     
  • At 4:24 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Now THERE is the place that we should shoot the movie Synthia and I spoke of. Can you just see it! :)
    Jamie

     

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home