Jaws no more

When I was little my sister forced me to sit down one Saturday afternoon and watch Jaws with her. Typical big-sister-little-sister torment (she also made me watch Killer Clowns From Mars around that time). Ever since I've had an irrational fear of sharks, as have many others (yet I'm okay with clowns).

Well, Tony and I came to San Jose in hopes of goint to San Francisco for a few days before returning home. They weren't able to change our flight, unfortunately, so we've been trying to find stuff to do in the meantime.

This brought us to the movies where we saw a documentary (in english) called Sharkwater. It was about one man's struggle to end the illegal shark-finning industry. Shark-fin soup is considered a delicacy and a sign of wealth in various countries, and fins go for ridiculous amounts of money on the black market. However, the act of finning is incredibly inhumane-sharks are pulled into boats, alive, their fins are cut off, and they are thrown back into the ocean to fall to the bottom and die. These mysterious creatures have been around for 400 million years. Longer than dinosaurs, longer than humans. Some breeds are becoming endangered, and if sharks disappear our entire eco-system could crash. It's pretty scary, and very sad for the sharks. If you'll recall, a couple months ago I made mention that more falling coconuts kill people each year than sharks do. WELL, as proof, a gigantic coconut fell inches from my head in Puerto Viejo, yet I didn't see a single shark. The film depicted sharks as a gentle creature. They only bite humans when they mistake them for an injured otter (which make the same bubbles that humans make when they're swimming). The documentary was filmed primarily in Costa Rica, which made it that much more interesting. Go to www.savingsharks.com to get more information about what's going on and about the movie.

In other news, I think we're going to try to go white water rafting tomorrow as one last hurrah before coming back to the states.


Brandee