One of the things you’ll hear, if you’ve not read it already, is how you can get anything in Guatemala, as long as you’re willing to pay for it.  In principle, I think that’s true, but there are some examples I can share that have proven very difficult to acquire at any price.

I’ve already mentioned my mission for bourbon, the status of which I can joyfully report as ‘improved’; a friend of mine who owns a bar can get Early Times, although apparently only occasionally.  There are other items, however, more practical, that remain in the ‘pending’ or ‘FUBAR’ stage.

For example, I need a new pair of shoes.  Before we left the states, we held numerous garage sales, gave away thousands of dollars worth of clothes to Goodwill and family/friends, filled a huge storage unit with stuff, and still found ourselves at the airport dumping bags of clothes into the trash.  It’s an experience I’ve tried to forget, although the Wife regularly occasionally reminds me.

The point of that little nightmare is a) to encourage you to check carefully the baggage limits before leaving for the airport, rather than simply stuffing everything you can get into a suitcase by sitting on it, and b)  to say that I ended up with two pairs of dress shoes and a pair of tennis shoes.  I never thought of myself as in the league of Imelda Marcos, but I was embarrassed when I looked at my closet on moving day and realized I had nearly a dozen pairs of shoes, sandals and boots.  Once you stop growing (vertically, anyway), and you spend most of your time at a desk, you don’t wear things out much and so collecting shoes for all manner of potential uses is easy.  Okay, enough with the justification.

So I’ve been looking for a pair of comfortable, durable, casual walking shoes.  Specifically, a pair I could wear around Antigua that would prevent the frequent ankle strains I suffer as a result of walking on the damn beautiful cobblestone streets.  (The sidewalks were not built with 6′1″ 230lb gringos in mind, and locals are not quick to step aside, so I spend much of my walking time on the streets, and then icing my ankles later).

I passed on most of the shoes I was seeing because the quality was clearly well below that which you can find at any Kmart in the states, and at twice the price.  My Dad taught me years ago that there are some things in life you shouldn’t pinch pennies on, and shoes is one of those items.  In fact, the aforementioned dress shoes are Johnston & Murphy which have been resoled twice and are in fabulous condition still.

Anyway, I’ve looked at a bunch of places for shoes and most were junk.  I found a pair I liked and asked for some in my size to try on.  The young lady responded that the only size they had was the one in my hand (size 8 as opposed to my size 12).    In fact, I discovered by visiting many stores that the largest size available locally is 11.  It’s also not possible to buy something other than the normal width, so if you’re like a certain someone in my family who has short, stubby feet that resemble a hobbit’s feet, well, you’re out of luck.

I’ve got a lot of information to give you on children’s shoes, so look for that in part 2.