Best of Big City, Brazil: Havaianas

Once upon a time I lived in a place called Small Town, Mexico.

Living in Small Town was, hmmmmm, how shall I put it?

Challenging. (am I right, or am I right, k-squared's mom?)

It was basically a small, icky, boring, oil town. When I found out we were leaving Small Town to move to Big City, Mexico, I did a dance of joy...and I realized that Small Town wasn't ALL bad, just mostly. So, being the positive person that I am, I started blogging about the "best of Small Town" and the "not so best of Small Town" to help me see the good (while at the same time being realistic). These posts can be found in March-June 2006.

Anyway, I'm going to start doing that here in Brazil; not because living here is anywhere near as bad as Small Town, but because I won't live here forever and I want to remember what it was like, both the positives and the negatives.

So, tonight I will start with a positive. Havaianas flip flops. I love them for several reasons.

1) Comfort.

These Brazilian flip flops are SO comfortable. I don't know why they are so much more comfortable than other flip-flops, they just are. There is no between-the-toes-discomfort that I have, at times, experienced with other flip flops.

2) Price.

The basic model costs around $10.00 USD, metallic ones will cost you a couple bucks more and the "dress" model (see below) costs around $17.00.

3) Availability.

They sell these shoes everywhere. Of course normal places like sporting goods stores and shoe stores have them, but they are also sold at newsstands (that they have on every block), drugstores, and IN THE GROCERY STORE.

Ok. Maybe, just maybe, this could have something to do with my high grocery bills. But really, I can buy either two pairs of shoes or one thing of maple syrup. Sorry kids-no waffles this weekend. (If I don't teach them about sacrifice-who will???)

Chronology of An Addiction

It all started with the basic white model with the cute little Brazilian flag:



Then, I upgraded to my first pair of metallic flip-flops (gold):



Then I realized I was wearing them way to much and that they weren't really dressy enough to wear out to dinner so I bought the dress version (silver):



I was really liking the metallic thing so I decided I needed some bronze:



I know, you're thinking they look just like the gold, but really, they are quite different from one another. See?:



And here's my most recent pair, purchased last Saturday while I tried, unsuccessfully, to find Guapo something for his birthday (isn't me being happy really the best gift I could give Guapo?):



And lest you think this shoe fetish is all about me, check out Pedro's latest pair:



You can bet that when I finally leave Brazil, I will have an a lifetime supply of flip-flops somewhere in my shipment.