Yeah, I did. I made it to the La Aurora cocktail party on Tuesday night. They launched their newest cigar "Guillermo Leon". It is a medium strength cigar (at best), but had a lot of flavor. I really enjoyed the corona size, and have a couple of other sizes to try. Aaron (gibbleguts) said he liked the corona, but the corona gorda was better.
Wednesday night, Craig (kurtdesign1) got me into the ECJ Awards party. Now, he told me I would be good coming straight from the convention floor, dressed in what I had on...shorts and a polo. Man did I feel out of place!!!! So many suits and ties and chicks with dresses. Didn't matter, the event was very cool. The magazine gave out awards for best cigars for various regions, for best value out of each region, and best over cigars. Each winner also provided a couple of boxes of cigars from their line for the attendees to smoke. No...not a couple of boxes for each person.
Thursday night I was invited to the Ashton dinner. Aaron, Dave (uncelnino) and Tim (podman28) were also there. They did a dinner Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night...serving drinks, food and cigars to 800 people!!!! It was an amazing dinner...actually you should see at least a pic of the dessert in my photos, if not also a pic of the menu. Carlito Fuente and the Garcia family were guests of Ashton at the event.
There were a number of other events as well. Perhaps those that went to them will jump in here and share. I know Tim and Aaron went to the Joya de Nicaragua dinner and Davidoff cocktail party. Tim also went to the CAO dinner. Matt (Cyrann) was also there. I have no doubt he went to some events too....oh wait, no one knows who he is.
Also, the first night I was there (Monday), a bunch of people got together at an out of the way cigar bar called Dos Jefes. Marvin (MC808) was there with a bunch of his buddies. They found the place last year. Dion from Illusione also came out to smoke as well. Was a great night.