Search the Community

Didn’t make it out to Pinar del Rio this time. Too much I wanted to see and do in Havana. Punch Joe called around on the night I arrived, sporting a beard and looking more Christian Bale than ever, we spent a few hours chatting and drinking rum. Lovely evening. The next day we had beers by the Irish hunger strikers memorial in Parque Victor Hugo which was around the corner from my apartment. My second night there, I met Rocky Patel at the Nacional. I hadn’t met him before. He’s a lovely guy, I “happened” to be smoking one of Hamlet’s new Salomones when I saw him. He asked me where I got it, I told him “Around the corner in a kiosk for 2 cucs”. I wish Hamlet could have seen his face. From talking to him, I know that he holds Hamlet in high regard. After the opening night event, I had the opportunity to introduce Rocky to Wishnu, who “discovered” Hamlet, and get a picture for him. I’m sentimental that way. Sarah Saunders had a Women’s International Cigar Club party on the Friday afternoon. Lovely event. Good people, the best lobster I’ve had in quite a while and an all-female band. Sarah graciously gave me the go ahead to wear a “Nobody knows I’m a Lesbian” t-shirt, unfortunately I couldn’t find the place to get it printed before the event. The opening night was fun. Always good to bump into people I haven’t seen yet. Alexander Abreu played. Great stuff. Cigars No Behikes anywhere, I think somebody saw one box somewhere. I had lunch with some people from El Laguito on the Friday before the festival and they were telling me they just can’t get the wrappers, it has been a problem for a couple of years now. There’s a new director and a new head of security at the factory so no private tours around festival week. There was an official one on the Wednesday of the festival but not my cup of tea. I was going to call out again on the Monday after the festival but ran out of time. The week before the festival there were some boxes of Diplomaticos Excelencias on the shelves. I got a couple of boxes. The week of the festival, none, of course. Then the week after, some of the shops started getting them in again with a 2 box purchase limit per customer. So they are still around, hard enough to find, but there. Plenty of Ramon Allones Club Allones and lots of regular stock. Other than the Excelencias and Club Allones, there were no other Habanos cigars I was really looking for so I didn’t look too hard. Lots of shops had their own custom made humidors to celebrate Cohiba’s 50th anniversary. Usually Siglo VI and/or Piramides extra with a second anniversary band. Some them them were quite nice but not really my thing. Prices from 900-1,800 cucs. Prices have not gone up at all since February 2015, on cigars or rum, so that’s good. That reminds me, I have a new price list for Zathan at Yulicigars so I must get that to him. I haven’t smoked any of the festival releases yet, so I can’t comment on those. Bought a few of Yolandas lonsdales, lovely as ever and she’s in great form, some of the best value cigars in Havana. Reinaldo’s cigars as good as ever. Plenty around, not as many on display as before but always full drawers of all sizes, except lanceros, in his custom-roll humidor. His shop is generally now very busy, although some quiet times. Got some Monsdales at Club Habana, Jorge not there this year, he isn’t well. Leo was there and in good form. Bought a few of Milagro’s panetelas and robustos in the Hotel Nacional. Nice sweet cigars. I never got around to visiting The Melia Cohiba or Commodoro this year. Tourism As everybody now knows, there are many more tourists in Havana now than any time since the revolution. It bothered a lot of people this time. Some people I know, some of whom have been going for 20 years, said this will be their last time. Not me, as there’s no point being annoyed by it, it’s the way it’s going and there’s no stopping it. As I have written before here, accommodation is harder to get and more expensive. Out of interest I had a look at booking the Hotel Habana Libre in November, I got a quote of $300 per night. 4 years ago it was $80. On the plus side there are more casa particulares opening every day. On the negative, people are getting bumped from them with little or no notice. It takes patience and perseverance. Part of the problem is that currently Americans cannot go freely as tourists, so beach holidays are technically illegal for them. Once that changes, the coastal resorts will be able to take some of the load. Also of course, people from everywhere else in the world are going to Cuba now “to see it before it changes”. Well too late! Service staff in Cuba have not had time to catch up with the changes either. Two examples. I went into the Partagas VIP room on the first Saturday afternoon with the Gibraltarians after we couldn’t find a venue to watch Ireland lose at rugby. The Partagas VIP room was always a calm spot where you could go and have a quiet smoke and a coffee/rum and a chat, lovely. This time there was a group of about 7, 40-50 year old, guys talking and shouting as loud as they could. It wasn’t that they happened to be loud, they were trying to annoy everyone else, shouting and chanting, yes chanting, things like “Let’s talk louder!” I went over as one of them was going to the table to get some rum and tried chatting to him, just to quiet the place down. The response I got was “**** off!” We left, because we couldn’t hear ourselves, to a lovely little new café around the corner for cocktails, cigars and some peace and quiet. Sia Kara, nice place. On the way out of Partagas, I asked one of the staff members what was going on, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’ve no idea”. That staff member has had 4 years of training in the London hotel trade so he would have been able to deal with that crowd no problem if he wanted to, maybe he’s not allowed. The other occasion was at a late night place called Las Piedras, I sure some people here know it. Gets going about 2 am, and goes until about 6. Will sell take out bottles too when they close. Anyway we notice on the first night that service was painfully slow, sometimes 20 minutes to buy a bottle and some cokes. Cubans were served very quickly, all foreigners had to wait. Then we saw why. I watched a group of about 4 college-aged kids order drinks, the bill came to 21 cuc. One of the guys threw a 20 on the counter and started walking away. The bartender, good on him, pulled the guy back and said, “No sir, I said 21 cuc!”. Very grudgingly, another 1 cuc came out. We got to know the bartenders, they got to know us. By the next night, all good. Small tips, not even generosity, just a show of appreciation is all it takes. Treating Cuban people like people. The bartenders had been basically trained not to serve foreigners through their treatment by foreigners. I would have done exactly the same if I was them. I don’t blame Americans for this, there are idiots from every country. I know. Just these times they happened to be Americans. I have a feeling it’s going to go one of two ways. Either every Cuban service worker is retrained to deal with people like this, (“keep the noise down or you’re out”, like every other country in the world) or loud, brash people who feel they own the place and can do what they like and treat people how they like will take over. I have a feeling it will be the latter. Food La Guarida, good as ever and busier than ever. Swordfish tacos still brilliant. I ate on the terrace as the Foxes were having a party up there to launch a new humidor, lovely evening. La Foresta, right beside El Palenque. Lovely venue, gorgeous garden, great staff, food not exceptional yet but I think it will get there. Perfect for a large crowd, 50 or so. VIP Havana, still great tapas. Quiet outside of busy times, had a very nice late lunch there one afternoon. El Litoral. Great portion sizes and cheap. Very nice. Chanchullero de Tapas. Very busy now. It’s on the radar, took us 30 minutes to get a table and the food was underwhelming. We probably just got there at a bad time. El Aljibe. No change other than more coach-loads of Americans. All fine. Otramanera, I didn’t eat there this time but hear from people who were there during the week that it is still the best food in Havana. Santy’s, good as ever, busy. Needs reservation. Nightclubs and bars Gato Tuerto, sad to say it has “lost something”. I was there a few times the first week and it’s just not what it once was. Ernesto, best bartender in Havana, has left. The new guy is good but it’s not the same. Tocororo, the new Gato Tuerto. Favourite of ex-pats. Good live music most nights, nice outdoor space and will serve until whenever once you know them. Good spot. Las Piedras, gets going at about 3 am, serves til about 6 am. Lots of very “friendly girls” there, so you need to be prepared for that. Best place in Havana for a plate of fries at 4 am. Upp sala, opens about 6 am until 10 am. Really nice place but blurry. There was another place after that but even more blurry. La Tikoa, somewhere I’ve been wanting to go for years. On La Rampa. Went this time with Stuart and Yvonne, a travel-writer friend of mine. I warned them to leave all possessions at home other than about 30 cucs. An experience. Very dark. Heavy reggaeton, the place was heaving, everyone dancing except for 4 older Italian men at the bar. Every dive I go into anywhere in the world always has 4 old Italians at the bar. Great fun, but I can’t recommend it. Unless you have your wits very much about you, you’ll leave with fewer possessions than you entered with. La Gruta, down the street from Tikoa, similar to Tikoa but much bigger. Again great fun, very few tourists, just Cubans out for a dance. El Sauce, went there both Sunday nights. I know the girl who runs it, her boyfriend, Frank Delgado, does DJ. 5 cucs in (used to be 2) cheap beer, cocktails and food and watch 1,000 Cubans dancing and having a great time. Nice spot. Live music on Friday and Saturday til 2 am or so. Closes at 11 pm on a Sunday so it perfect timing to go on from there to La Fabrica de Arte Cubano, Sunday night is the best night here. Only opens Thursday-Sunday. There can be big queues on a Friday and Saturday. Sunday, perfect from 11pm-2 am. Great venue. Brilliant. Live music, a side stage, art gallery, photography gallery, movie theatre, cheap booze and great bar-tenders. Has to be be seen. So overall, a great trip again. The best times were the parties, a German friend who lives in Cuba had a couple of barbeques and it was so nice to go to his house and have quiet time and a laugh with his family and friends. He came to the Gala dinner with his wife, her sister was one of the event organisers, all lovely people. Had fun singing happy birthday to her at midnight. They had a pig-roast the next day. I can’t start thanking people for the good times because I know I’ll forget someone. But had a nice time at the gala dinner with a fellow FoH member. The table was near the stage so too loud to talk to the Canadian retailers/distributers opposite us. I was wandering about a lot anyway as there were people I had to see. I decided to leave my main course when my lobster fought back. Anyway thanks to everyone for all the parties, drinks and good times. I called into Punch Joe on the way to the airport to say goodbye. At this stage beardless. He’s in great form, doing well as a freelance cigar-guy and generally very happy. Happier than I’ve seen him for a while now. Changes have come to Cuba and more are coming. I just hope whoever’s in charge there manages it properly. I have my worries. Capitalism in Cuba, great! Unregulated capitalism, as has already started, and maybe there’ll no more walking the streets safely in future. For anyone. There was a general feeling of change among many of the regular festival-goers, with as I said, some of them saying they wouldn’t be back. Except.. Here’s a nice example. This year for the first time, the Gibraltarians rented a house, rather than stay at the Nacional, they couldn’t get enough rooms. By the end of the week they had their best time ever, they got to know the locals, their neighbours and had great fun. Antics like buying eggs by the side of the road then selling them at the market. J Having fun and interacting with some of the warmest, funniest, most generous people in the world. It’s what will keep bringing me back. Pictures coming ​ Punch Joe​ Hotel Manzana, the new Kempinski Capiltolio and Gran Teatro Hunger Strikers memorial