Another adventure....

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February 24th , Thursday

(Skip) The start of our day was, as usual casual, with us departing the Purple House around 10:00am and traveling to Boquete which is about 30km north of David. The government of Panama is in the process of widing the 2 lane paved highway to what looks to be 3 or 4 lane. I noticed while driving to Boquete a fair amount of housing construction taking place near the main highway. This construction appeared to be single housing rather than large scale development. These projects were more than likely taking place off the road nearer the mountains.

Once arriving in the town of Boquete the first impression is that of a quaint small town with a short main street and lots of small shops. Many, many restaurants (small & Large) a couple of local grocery stores, a fair number of upscale artisan (yuppy) shops, and a few small vegetable/fresh produce shops.

On the initial pass down main street we didn't stop, but chose to proceed through town and see what the country outside of town looked like. I forgot to mention that very steep mountains surround this town with various types of trees being found at the very tops of these mountains. On the other side of town we started to climb and proceeded to wind our way past many old and new beautiful houses. As we travel forward we're gaining elevation at a rapid rate. After traveling perhaps 5 or 6km we passed a coffee processing plant, and finally noted the many, many acres under cultivation with coffee beans.
All along this climb up the mountain road and hillside and along side of the road our eyes were filled with the beauty of flowering trees, vines and shrubs. What a contrast against the deep green color of the tree leaves.

Passing back through town we pulled along side of the main street and started our search for goodies and food. During this quest we found and purchased a fresh pineapple ($1), approximately 1 lb of locally grown coffee ($3) and lunch. Our lunch consisted of well seasoned rice with corn mixed with the rice, fresh combination vegetables and yummy plantains in a sauce. Total price of the lunch/dinner including one diet coke amounted to $6. Besides being a very good lunch our senses were treated with fantastic floral smells and a wonderful visual panorama of the country side. Truly a very
enjoyable lunch.

The journey back to the Purple house was uneventful, and that makes one happy!

(Barb) ok..now this is just a hoot...we were at this little cafeteria type place in Boquete having lunch and there were these 2 people sitting not far from us...I could tell they were speaking English..but I didn't want to yell to them so I didn't say anything. When we finished eating, we had enjoyed the plantains so much I decided to get some to 'go'....I went back in and the man was there trying to figure out what was what in the cafeteria line...I told him Pollo was chicken and carne was beef and arozo (sp?) was rice...he thanked me and went back out...later Skip had to go potty so I was sitting there and he turned around holding his fork up with a bit of something on the end and said “do you know what this is?” and I said “Salad”...they laughed and said they knew that but what is 'this'...I said was it good? And they said yes and I said then that's all we need to know!!! I said what does it taste like and they said it was a little bitter but good...small little square mushy things...I said I really don't know. Just think they were asking ME for help...go figure that one!!! It cracked me up. Found out they were from Vancouver, Canada...long trip for them!
OH BTW...ice cream is very good down here and a double scoop cone is 35 cents..3 scoops in a cup is 40 cents...oh yum...Tonite we had some great Chilean wine for under $5 and Dominos Pizza...a little slice of home.... Good night folks.

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