| Diary |
Dear Diary,
On the way to our next dig site near Choquequirao, Felix and I ended up taking a dunk in the river, but were both rescued by strange pink river dolphins, of all things. The workers at the site called them 'encantado', the guardians of the river. Nearly drowning got me all keyed up – you know, as it does – so instead of sleeping, Felix and I stepped out to look over the site in the moonlight… and saw a strange light coming from it.
We had no luck finding the light, however, as clearly whoever was out there had better things to do than get rained on. It's not like they're going to be leaving Choquequirao any time soon, so we can keep an eye out for if they return.
That strange light returned to the dig site at Choquequirao, so Felix and I decided to try tracking it down.
In our attempt to follow the light, we ended up getting trapped in the catacombs of Choquequirao and triggering a giant wall of floodwater.!
We noticed as we progressed that the same motifs seemed to be repeated in the artwork, puzzles and obstacles: winged serpents, condors and pumas, or occasionally a condor-winged serpent with a puma head. We came to one in particular which was missing its eyes and one wing and was guarding a door that refused to open.
We couldn't figure out how to get it to budge, so we'll have to try again. Choquequirao isn't going anywhere, at least...
Felix and I returned to the Choquequirao catacombs to figure out what to do with the statue with missing eyes and wing.
By using a jade pendant and set of gemstones we'd found in an earlier chamber of the temple, we were able to 'complete' the statue and use it to trigger a switch and open the door.
We encountered three guardian spirits – a puma, a condor and a serpent – who demanded to be freed from their bonds of service… which somehow I was able to do. They told me the tale of Choquequirao is now in my hands… in our hands. I'm not going to let it fade from memory again.