It is Christmas night, and because I had nothing else to do, I was able to crop the pictures I took of the Amazon river dolphins in Colombia. These were taken while on a boat in the middle of the river. They moved very fast, so picture taking was difficult. Only three pictures really turned out. Here they are:

I also uploaded the full collection of pictures I took in Colombia to my photo gallery (388 pictures total!). Check ‘em out at http://photos.ruin.net.

I’m back in Cartagena now (I’ve been in Leticia in the Amazon for the past few days), and today is my last day in Colombia – I fly home tomorrow. Colombia is a great place to travel to – tons of stuff to do. I’ve just scratched the surface, really. I wish I had spent more time in Bogota – it looked very pretty from the plane – it sits high and is surrounded by mountains, thus it has a temperate climate. It reminded me of Denver. I hear Medellin is very nice, also.

Now, I leave you with more pictures from the Amazon. I got some pictures of the river dolphins too, but I need to edit/crop those before I can post them. In the meantime, enjoy these:

I’ve made it to Leticia, a small town in the south of Colombia along the Amazon river. In the middle of the rain forest. As you can imagine, internet connections are a little slow here – I’m amazed I can get connected at all.

Today I went to “Monkey Island” which is an island in the Amazon river. Yes, the river is so big it has islands. Anyway, true to its name, Monkey Island is full of monkeys. And if you bring a few bananas you’ll find yourself quickly mobbed by them.

Now then, on to the pics. I’m only going to upload a few due to internet slowness, but I promise they’re the best!

Yesterday I visited Cartagena’s Spanish Inquisition Museum, housed in the same building the Inquisition took place. The Inquisition in Cartagena had jurisdiction over the Caribbean region, the two other inquisitions in the Americas were in Lima and Mexico City.

While in Spain the Inquisition was primarily focused on recent Christian converts from Judaism or Islam (the charge being they were secretly practicing their old religion), the Inquisition in the Americas focused mainly on native (Indian) converts, but also Witchcraft.

If you found yourself accused of Witchcraft by the Inquisition in the 17th century, you could be expected to be asked the following questions as the Inquisitor spills your guts out:

1. Since when have you been a witch?
2. Why did you become a witch?
3.  How did you become a witch and what happened on that occasion?
4. Whom did you choose as your partner?
5. What is his/her name?
6. What is the name of your master amongst the evil spirits?
7. Which is the oath that you have had to render to him?
8.  How and under what terms have you done it?
9. What fingers did you have to rise?
10. Where did you celebrate your wedding?
11. What demons and people attended your wedding?
12. What foods did you eat?
13. How was it served on the table?
14. Were you also sitting down at the table?
15. What kind of music was played? What were the dances? Did not you dance?
16. Who was assigned as your partner at the ceremony?
17. What mark did your partner make you on your body?
18. What evils have you caused? To whom and How?
19. Why did you cause this evil?
20. How can it be remedied?
21. What kind of herbs, potions, and other means, can be used to cure the curse?
22. To which children have you cast the spell of the “evil eye” and why have you done it?
23. What animals have you killed or put under a curse? And why have you done it?
24. Who are your associates for/in evil?
25. Why does the devil strike you blows at night?
26. How do you compose/prepare your ointment or witches’ brew?
27. How can you fly through the air?
28. What words do you pronounce when you fly?
29. Are you flying so fast?
30. Who has taught you to fly?
31. What worms and caterpillars/slugs have you created?
32. What do you use to make these harmful/noxious animals (worms and caterpillars/slugs) and how are they created?
33.  Has put the devil a bow/ribbon on/to your curses/oaths?

Here are some pictures from the inside of the museum:

Tomorrow I go to the deep, deep Amazon jungle. Hopefully soon I will have some wildlife pictures of some sort.

I am back in Cartagena after spending two nights sleeping in a hammock on Playa Blanca (White Beach)…arguably one of the best beaches in Colombia.

This beach has no luxury hotels or resorts by it. In fact, it has no electrical grid at all. This made staying there almost like camping. It was quite nice to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean waves.

Now, the best pictures anyone can take at a beach are sunsets or sunrises – whichever occurs on the oceanic horizon. In this case it was sunsets. One can find thousands of pictures of beach sunsets by doing a simple Google search, and from these the pictures I took do not distinguish themselves in any way. However, I post a few of them here anyway, for lack of anything else worthwhile to post. So enjoy these extraordinarily average sunset pictures.