I was on a Caribbean cruise last week, and we stopped in Costa Maya. After a great morning of diving, we got back early enough to go on a search for "Cuban" cigars just for fun, knowing that everything would be fake. I also wanted to pick up some Mexican cigars as a souvenir. The first shop we go to has a bunch of cigars in old boxes that were just so obviously fake that it wasn't even fun to play the game. We mentioned this to the shop owner, who smiled and agreed, and when we asked where we could get the real deal, he said Diamonds International (the large jewelry company). Well this did not sound right but we stopped in anyway, and talked to a guy name Pedro, who said they did not have them, but the Diamonds International Tequileria had them, and to say he sent us. Of course they did not sell cigars either, but a guy there said he knew a guy and took us about three doors down and introduced us, This guy says he doesn't have any, but he knows a guy (and by now this is getting pretty funny, and we need to see this to the end) and takes us to a souvenir shop. Well the guy at the souvenir shop lead us to the back where he uncovers a table with a bunch of sealed CC boxes on it. And of course it's the glass top box with the seal on the inside of the box, no date codes, no factory codes, etc... So I point this out to the guy, and he admits they're fake (they all seemed pretty willing to fess up) and then asks me to repeat the various points of fakeness I had just identified, like he wanted to take notes! We give him a bit of a friendly hard time, and he laughs. So then I ask him where I can buy some Mexican cigars, and a women behind the counter points to the "cubans" and says, "Buy those. We all know they are fake." We're all laughing by this time, but they would not come down on the price even knowing they were fake, so we passed. I did find my Mexican cigars (Te-Amos) in a drug store near the ship. Eventually was able to get the real deal at LCDH in Cozumel the next day.
