The Sun's birthplace

I breathe in. The rare oxygen is rapidly absorbed by every tired cell of my body, each of them invariably panting after the many uphill and downhill slopes walked under the scorching sun of this island that shares its name with this heavenly body. This is the same place the Incas believed to be their supreme sun-god’s birthplace. Sitting on top of the hill that tops the island I look around at the famous lake Titicaca, embedded in the foothills of the even taller mountains that surround it and fit it in between the rocks and the sky, making this lake more of a mirror of what surrounds it and of the World. I close my eyes and feel like a little giant sitting on the World’s peak. I imagine my legs long enough to reach the shore with a small jump, as if I was seated in a little rock inside a puddle. I feel my arms long enough to reach the boats that sail this lake, as if I was just a child playing with them in a random Summer afternoon. I stand up and manage to touch the sky, blow around the few clouds on it, burn my fingertips when I touch this little star that lights my way and burns my skin. Opening my eyes and feeling the sun burning the back of my head, I realize while looking around why the Incas knew this place was the Sun’s birthplace. I breathe out, it’s time to move on.








Island of the Sun - Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, August 2009