Havaiana brouhaha

This post is probably anti-climactic as the brouhaha might have died down by now but here it is anyway. I have come across some funny questions when I was home last summer...after all, it's not every day someone comes home from Nicaragua or Central America, of all places. To qualify, it took me and V 3 days of travel, crossing 2 continents where we had to get off the plane in 5 cities and required to re-check-in our luggage in 2 of them . Please don't ask me how much it cost us...it was obscene and I will not do it again.

A friend asked me if I have brought Havaianas with me ...uhhh, I don't think I am allowed to bring exotic fruits, vegetables nor plants with me...so, no. As that what it sounded to me, something exotic to eat. Havaianas I found out are some fashionable flip-flops from Brazil which was all the rage in the Philippines at that time. Given my proximity to Brazil - well, compared to them in the Philippines, they thought that it could be a fashion rage here as well.

I've never heard of it! Incredulous as it may have sounded to them (to those who believed it was a universal rage), I haven't even come across them...not even by accident. Not while I was in Costa Rica nor Panama nor recently in Colombia and definitely not here in Nicaragua.

When I was there, I, of course, checked this flip-flops out and to my chagrin a pair could cost anywhere between PHP 1,500 to 2,000 and given the present exchange rate would be no less than $30...for a pair of plastic/rubber flip-flops!

In my 6 weeks in Costa Rica prior to coming here to Nicaragua, I have already discovered Grendha and Ipanema both from Grendene of Farroupilha, Brazil. If you don't know what to buy here of good quality footwear, buy Brazilian, it's hard to go wrong with footwear made in Brazil.

I can get Grendha and Ipanema here in Nicaragua for between $10 - 15 but in Panama, I got a pair for $5 and another for $7. They are the most comfortable footwear I have ever had on and are sold all over Latin America. I have tried on Havaianas in the Philippines just to see what it had to offer and I must say I'd go for Grendha and Ipanema anytime.

Obviously, I did not buy even a single pair of Havaianas in the Philippines as I thought it was 'una locura' to spend that much money on flip-flops. If one can get something that makes you feel like walking on air for a third of the price....but then again I don't live half a world away from them, poreso, como no.