An American Store in Rivas

Or at least it's MY kind of American store!

To give you an idea of how much I like shopping for new pants, the last pair I bought was almost a year and a half ago. But when one of the few pairs I have ripped a couple weeks ago, I couldn't really deny it any more.

On top of not really liking the process much in general, I had the challenge knowing that I was in no way shaped like the majority of Latin American women (I'm going to spare you the description, just believe me), so I had no idea how many stores and how many hot stuffy fitting rooms I was going to have to subject myself to.

We hit store #1, store #2, store #3 (where I bought a pair of shorts that are a US brand! But still not what I needed). And then miracle of miracles. Roberto casually mentions that up those stairs is a used clothing store, we could just go to see what they have.

Heaven! Well, at least relatively so!

The only thing missing was air conditioning!

Rack upon racks of cheap American used clothing! I've heard debates about how free clothes donations from the US can devastate local clothing manufacturers in developing countries (regular pants will cost around $15 to $20, shipping costs for free clothes from the US much less), but at the moment, I didn't care.

I just walked out on cloud nine with my $3 Old Navy cargo pants.