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Xii edición del festival del habano

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Nice pickups Aaron. Looks like you did a bunch more shopping in the week after our shopping trip at Club Havana. Nicely done bro!

i'll try to stop by on Wednesday to see ya and hear some stories, if you're working, that is.
 

gibbleguts

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Ok lets get into the real details of the festival. Monday the 22 was the Welcome Night of the XII Habanos festival. It was held at the Gran Teatro De La Habana. Entertainment was frovided by Chucho Valedes a gramy award winning jazz pianist. Then there were cocktails at the Sala Carpentier of the Theatre. The Theatre reminds you of what Havana was like 60 years ago and that is is not there any more. A very grand building in need of som repairs like most of the city.




 

SkinsFanLarry

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I figured I would start with a pic of pic ups in Havana. I will post quite a few more pics over the next few days

Aaron, what are the small box's (appears to be blue & gold) between your hat and the San Cristobal's and sitting atop the Rum??
 

gibbleguts

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Inside the Partagas store there are quite a few double banded humidors for sale. I guess that htey have a Partagas festival in November that they make these for. Took me a bit to figure out what they were for.

I spent most of tuesday wandering from cigar store to cigar store. There is some restoration going on in old Havana but not as much as I would like to see as it will be very impressive if it ever gets finished

One of the rollers at the Club Havana. Not Jorge but another one that I am not sure of his name

People always warn you about the food in Cuba, at least in Havana if you know where to the food is amazing. In this restraunt the waiters wear tuxedo's and the food is amazing. Pretty good wine selection as well.


Every year the Canadian Distributor has an evening at the hotel for all the Canadian guests and Cubans that have helped make it a great year and event. Traditional Cuban BBQ, Live band and a show by swim group. Always a good event

 

gibbleguts

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Wednesday I started out with a trip to the RyJ factory store to visit Hamlet. I guess the factory is no longer in use but they left the store open as only here and Partagas had stores at the factories. Because of this many tours include a trip to a factory but most have no store they come here. Bus loads of tourists kept piling in. Ran in to some buddies from Calgary and we spent the afternoon hanging out with Hamlet smoking and drinking. I will again say that Hamlet is possibly the best face for Habanos to put out there in front of the world. He can entertain you for hours with stories about his time in the cigar business. He is very young to be in the position he is in but told us that fairly early on he had decided that he did not want to be in the factories for ever. I was also interviewed by CBS in the store that day.



That evening was Women in Habanos Night. The dinner was held at the Museo de Bellas Artes. It was an perfect venue for the night. Around the court yard was covered so everyone was protected in case of rain but still pretty much an out door event. We were given a pack that included a tin of the new RyJ Julieta's which I actually quite enjoyed. For every course they had the models come around to every table and serve cigars. The cigars for the evening were the RyJ Julietta, Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure #2 and the Montecristo Gran Edmundo Edition Limitada 2010. With each course came a wine pairing as well that wasn't executed to it's fullest. The food at these events is always some of my least favorite for the entire trip. They just seem to not be able to pull off great food for this many. Still was edidible but beef in Cuba is not recomended.


 
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