Last Day at the Purple House

---

Friday, Feb. 25, 2011
(Barb) Today we headed toward Volcan, about 45 min from David. The drive there was good and the flowers, bushes and trees were just amazing in their color and beauty. I don't think I've ever seen such deep and rich colors anywhere. There was one spot where there was this one particular tree lining both sides of the road for about a quarter of a mile. The tree had a trumpet looking flower hanging like apples from the limbs...they were peachy colored and lush. I was stunned. Got to see my first banana tree too. We just kept on driving after going thru Volcan heading into the countryside to see what we could see. Suddenly we realized we were almost to the Costa Rica border! Skip decided to turn around and head back before we happened upon a customs house. I thought it would be fun to cross the border, have lunch and come back..but he vetoed that idea! So instead we looked for this Thai restaurant that Andrea told us about. Well we found it...amazingly,since it was off a side road and she had said it was just a ways down..we had gone a long ways and decided to turn around and forget it when lo and behold where we turned around was the restaurant. We walked in to a very clean and neat room filled with about 8 or 9 tables and one wall of foliage. Very cool. This young lady came out and spoke excellent English giving us a verbal menu. The 'special' she said was rice noodles with carrots, pumpkin, zucchini, eggplant and chicken with a fresh basil coconut milk. She went on..but we stopped her and said we'd try the special..and split it. We also ordered jasmine tea (which I didn't care for) OH MY was it ever delicious! When she came out to see if we wanted anything else she ended up talking to us while we ate. This lasted at least an hour! She was the coolest gal. At 17 she was already a full fledged fireman...oops firewoman and learning how to be a paramedic. She was part of a rappel group that she had to have her parents sign for because she was so young; she's the only girl and the rest of the members are (as she put it) 'big muscle man'..they thought she couldn't make the team but she showed them! She showed us pics of her and the group and she is so tiny compared to them. She goes to school from noon til 6 pm. Plus she works in her parents restaurant where she used all her tips to buy her books and uniforms. She's quite the gal and very entertaining to listen to. She wants to become a Vet and had to bring us in the back yard to show us her rescued animals...2 dogs and 3 cats... but on her mother's farm she has a lot more. What a gal!
We were headed back to The Purple House after that but along the way we saw a Price Smart and Skip said he thought that was a Costco..so we stopped and sure enough we went in and wandered around comparing prices and snaking on desserts and (go figure) wine, and other liquor mixtures!!! USA Costco needs to start doing that!!!
We stopped at a mall and looked around...but not for long....you know how it is to shop with a man standing by just waiting.....enough said eh ladies?

Wandered back to the Purple House and had a few Cervesas (beer) and relaxed for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we are off to Boco Del Toro on the Isle of Colon....should be interesting!

---