Hard Life for Soles
by Anne Watcher on Monday December 2nd, 2013 at 1:43pmAlthough life here in Nicaragua is harder than at home, our shoes take the worst of it. The constant walking, the rough cobblestone roads, the dirt roads and uneven terrain all take their toll on the soles of our shoes, no matter how expensive or inexpensive they originally were.
However this is a culture of "fix it" instead of "ditching it". It is easy to find a place to bring your shoes back to life. Earlier in our stay the straps on my "inexpensive" sandals came loose. Possibly walking in the streets-turned-into-rivers was not a good idea! They were too comfortable to toss out so I found a gentlemen at the Central Market who stitched them back to life for C$80 ($3.50 CAD)
Just before we came to Nicaragua, Rob had purchased some more expensive shoes and we thought they would survive at least the eight months we would be here. NOT!! Two months in and the soles broke through! Also too comfortable (and expensive) to toss out we again went to the repair guy (sorry can't remember his name).

It seemed like brutal treatment to the poor shoe watching the old sole being removed. He reefed and reefed with his pliers to the point we wondered if the top part of the shoe would survive. Finally success and the old sole was removed. He showed us that not only the heel section was broken through, but also the area under the pad of Rob's foot.

At the start Rob had asked the price, C$250 total, good deal to fix $130.00 shoes. Now with the sole off, the repair guy asked for some money. After a bit of Spanglish we realized he needed C$100 (which was part of the C$250) to go buy the new soles. He quickly returned with the right size and set to work to put the uppers and soles back into one piece. Carefully stitching by hand he made sure the job was done just right.

While showing us the finished product he assured us that these soles were "duro" tough and would last a year. Rob was so happy to once again have working shoes plus only spend $10 instead of another $100 plus.
