Sunday, June 11, 2017

Last night I went to bed at 11pm, quickly fell asleep but got up several times during the night, finally waking/getting up at 8:30.

I took a nap from 11am to noon.

I finished John Otis’ Law of the Jungle: The Hunt for Colombian Guerrillas, American Hostages, and Buried Treasure and then downloaded Out of Captivity: Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle by Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell, and Tom Howes.

Internet is slow, when it’s working at all.

My brother informed me that the heat index in Chicago this week is supposed to be 102 degrees.  Here today it’s only a high of 78 – much nicer.

I invited Teresa to join me to see The Shack starting at 4:20 in Las Americas.  I showed her the trailer and after just a few seconds she said she wanted to see it so I guess she knew what movie it was.  She asked me where else it’s playing and I told her it’s playing at Oviedo starting at 6:20 so she wanted to go there.

We left the apt at 4pm and quickly caught a taxi that dropped us off at Carulla in the back of the mall.

The ladies went to check out Bon Bonite and I went to Citibank to get some 50mil bills.  First time I recall using their ATM and I was surprised that it gave me all 20mil bills.  Yikes!

I went up to the theater and all the regular seats were taken – at least the good ones – I don’t want to sit in the first 2 rows.  I bought 3 preferred seating tickets for 19,500 each (about $7).  I checked the posters and I saw that Tom Hanks starring in The Circle (5.3) will be “coming soon”.  It doesn’t look like a very good movie but I really like Tom Hanks. 

I went back downstairs where I soon found the ladies outside one of the 2 Bon Bonite locations.  They did some more window shopping and then we stopped and they had a snack at a little store called Alpina.  They bought Greek yogurt, a bag of chips, and some type of whipping cream with strawberries for 18,200.

Upstairs we sat in some soft couches outside a furniture store.  Teresa went inside and found the “stuffing” in which to make a pillow.  Of course she doesn’t want to buy it and carry it into the theater so she wants to stop after and buy it.  I asked her when the store closes and she said 8pm.  I told her that it will be close to 9pm when we get out.

At 6:05 we got in line at the snack bar.  It was a pretty long line and by the time we got our sandwich, hot dog, popcorn and 3 sodas and got to our seats it was 6:30.  We still had a 10 minute for the movie to begin.  

The theater was pretty crowded with most of the 1^st 2 rows filled.  It seemed like they had the movie volume turned down to a whisper so I had to cup a hand by my ear and read the Spanish translation to understand all that was going on.  (Earlier I was watching a program about the civil war on History channel #2 and they had the “music” turned up so loud I couldn’t hear what the narrator was saying.)  I really don’t think I’m going deaf.  We all enjoyed the movie The Shack (6.3).  One imdb reviewer gave it 9 stars (out of 10) with these comments I am not a regular church goer, nor did I have high expectations for this film at all, and I do not cry in films, but this movie made me ball. Most Christian films fall flat and can be subjective, but this was different. I knew people who were fans of the book and highly anticipated the film, but seeing it is not a movie, it is an experience not to be missed. The values of forgiveness and true faith are challenged and as the viewer it was overwhelming. Better than any of the Oscar nominations this year.  I see that it was made for 20 million and has earned 57 million (as of May 12^th) so it was finally successful.

After the movie we walked down to Carulla and arrived right at 9pm as they were shutting the doors.  We backtracked and quickly caught a taxi back to the apt.

Last week Alex moved into a room in the Santa Lucia/Floresta neighborhood.  The owner of his apt took him to Guatape today and they toured Pablo Escobar’s estate.  His old soccer field is now being used to play paint ball.

I checked the tournament online and I see the player with the highest average has won all 3 of his games thus far.  (They played 2 games today – after that it’s one game a day.)

T-shirt of the day: I’m not a proctologist but I know an asshole when I see one.