Puntarenas-(La decisión muy Horrible)

Wow! I’m not sure where to even begin about this somewhat adventure of ours. One of the girls in our group that we have hung out a lot with has made a little “amigo tico” while we have been here. Three of the girls decided they wanted to take the basically one free day that we have had and travel somewhere. Well, the girl’s friend mentioned Puntarenas which is basically one of the many beaches in Costa Rica that sits on part of a peninsula. It is relatively about 30 minutes from Jaco (a big tourist beach). Ashley and I decided that since It was a beach and not too far away from here that we would tag along. Well that decision was the beginning of a ripple effect of events that took place. We had to be at the bus stop really early so we could have all day at this beach. The bus left around 8 am and we arrived around 10. We left the bus stop and crossed the street to where we saw the ocean so we could get some sun since I have basically lost all of my wonderful tan that I had had at the beginning of the summer. To our great surprise the beach was not beautiful white sand. Oh no, it was a horrible dark sand covered with trash. It looked like a landfill where people would just go and dump all of their trash as if it were one big wide open trash can. We figured that if we walked a little bit further that we could find a good part of the beach to hang out on. We were wrong, not to mention that it was so hot and sticky and humid. None of the restaurants opened until 11 and to use the bathroom we had to pay. Well the girls tico friend randomly decided to tell us that he has friends that live near where we were. So after about walking for about 45 minutes the guy was like “well I think he lives down this street but I haven’t seen them in two years. He barely could remember their names. It turns out we found their house but they were not home. Their mom and grandma were the only ones home. Here we are 5 american girls with one native Costa Rican ringing the doorbell to a strangers home out of the blue. She was very kind and as she was getting to literally walk out of the house to work she invited us in so that we could use the bathroom. That was probably the only good thing that came out of being there. After deciding not to take a bus to Jaco for the rest of the day because some people were afraid we would not be able to get a bus back due to the world surf championships we walked back to where we all began; the bus station. Ashley and I just wanted to leave this dirty sketchy city and return to the familiar place of San Jose. we left the others and waited for the next bus. Eventually, the others decided that there was nothing else for them to do so they met us back at the bus station and returned to San Jose with us. I was so frustrated and perturbed by the others and the whole situation that I just wanted to get back, be in air conditioning, and relax at the house. Ashley and I went to Veritas for a bit to check email and what not. When we decided to head back we ran into our good soul of a driver that is in charge of the shuttle for us international students at night. It was perfect timing when we ran into Victor, because he was about to pull off and drop off a group of students. This made our day! A 5 minute ride saved us a 15-20 minute walk back to the house. When we returned we told Emma and her son Alberto along with Victor how horrible the trip was and how annoyed we were. All of them asked us the same question: “why on earth did you go to Puntarenas?” Why did they not tell us about it before we made the trip? The main reason I was annoyed by it all was due to the fact of a complete waste of day spent on taking a bus ride to a beach just to see that it was dirty walk around in the hot weather and ride the bus back. Well, Ashley and I decided that after that day all we wanted to do was relax, so we decided to go see a movie. That was the best decision we had made all day. About 45 minutes before we left for the movie theaters we both heard what appeared to be 3 gun shots that seemed to close for comfort. We both gave a look to one another that represented, “did you hear that? Surely, not gunshots” well about 5 minutes after disregarding that thought a car screeched away in a hurry and not too long after that we heard an ambulance. Apparently, Emma did not hear it but all of the other neighbors did because they were outside in the garages behind their “gated bars” trying to figure out where it came from. It turns out we learned tonight, that a woman around the corner was attacked in home by someone and they had covered her eyes so that she couldn’t seem the attacker. Im not sure if she was shot, but Emma told us that she was okay. The movie we saw was My Sister’s Keeper. This movie is based on a novel and I think parts of the story are based on real life events. The movie was excellent and I highly recommend that you go see this one in the theaters. I am literally still trying to process the events and the storyline as I write this not because I didn’t understand it, but because the issues are so thought provoking and deep. The movie is based on a family who struggles with a daughter who has a very rare type of leukemia. She was diagnosed as a toddler and in the movie is seen at age 15. Her younger sister Anna, was created by in vitro for the soul purpose of saving her sister Kate’s life. Since Anna was born, the doctors had done multiple procedures to help cure Kate’s sister. They story line continues with Anna wanting to become medically emancipated from her parents because she did not want to be poked and stuck any more. Her sister needed a kidney and without Kate would die. Anna did not want to donate her kidney because she wanted to have a normal life. Throughout the movie you see the families’ trials and tribulations, successes, love, determination, struggles to survive and live through and with having a terminally sick child and how it affects everyone in the family differently. The movie makes you cry one minute, and then laugh the next. It was filled with emotions and made you think in ways about things that you 1. Don’t want to think about and 2. Didn’t know you would think about. That movie was the exact thing I needed to turn the day around. Hasta pronto…