Nowhere Station [Haibun]

The tawny landscape was tinged with the green that landlubbers take on in rolling seas or flatlanders show on a high mountain pass. The world looked like it was being viewed through shooter's glasses -- except for the azure infinity overhead that was unafflicted by sickly hues. Railroad tracks arced the length of the valley and it was a long valley - so long the tracks almost looked line like. The lack of other signs of humanity might have led one to believe it was the train to nowhere, but there was a solitary station in the middle of the valley and there can't be a station in the middle of nowhere on the way to nowhere. Or, can there be? Maybe, nowhere is like infinity, existing in larger and smaller degrees.


a single building
and a long covered platform,
but just i, waiting

DAILY PHOTO: Machu Picchu in the Distance

Taken from the Salkantay Trail

Cuzco Limerick

The Conquistador who "founded" Cuzco
apparently, did not get the memo.
"My lips to your ear,
it's already there.
It's been a city since Moors ruled Toledo."

DAILY PHOTO: Cylindrical Houses in Peru

Taken about a decade ago in the Peruvian Andes

These are restorations of the stone portions of a cylindrical houses. These would have been topped with a conical thatched roof, though less is known about the details (e.g. pitch) of such roofs because the thatching (obviously) didn’t survive as well as the stone bases. These were located at an archeological site on the road between Cuzco and Puno.

DAILY PHOTO: Salkantay Trail Snack Shack

Taken on the Salkantay Trail in Peru around 2010

DAILY PHOTO: Andean Scene

Taken in southern Peru about ten years ago

DAILY PHOTO: Overlooking Puno

Taken about ten years ago in Puno, Peru (on the shore of Titicaca.)

DAILY PHOTO: Machu Picchu from a Distance

Taken in the summer of 2010 from the trail to Inti Punku (The Sun Gate.)

Limerick of Peru

There was a lady from Lima, Peru
who had only seen llamas at the Zoo,
and though the trend was big,
she didn’t eat guinea pig.
Such is life on a Miraflores avenue.

DAILY PHOTO: Machu Picchu from Near the Sun Gate

Taken around 2010 on the trail to Machu Picchu.