nino

Cubans would say : Mañana .... 🙂

Mi hermano, ya tu sabes... no es facil y estamos en la lucha. Lo demas es la boberia del bloqueo. No se lo cree ya ni quien invento la palabra. Un saludo cordial.

Cannot agree more with that, as I often hear most Cubans make fun of "El Bloqueo" by blaming everything on it while fully aware it is THEIR own gvt. that is blocking progress and development...A valve to laugh at the gvt's stupid insistence on blaming all problems to "El Bloqueo". Last week it was announced that no more meat sausages can be produced as there are no animals left to use for sausages ... so they are using Claria ( a pond-raised predator catfish from SE Asia ) to make sausages. Of course, the fact that Cubas has neither pigs, chickens or anything that can be used to make sausages is due to the "El Bloqueo". Just like the rationing of basic food ... Tell that to a Cuban and he will agree : Good joke ! https://www.14ymedio.com/blogs/origenes/claria-cien-especies-daninas-mundo_7_1672702714.html

I've smoked cigars at lower altitudes - the highest was almost 4000 metres in Kazahkstan - problem is not smoking them but lighting them .... My jet torch refused to work, happy to have some other lighting methods with me.

Check also the LCDH in Almere next to Amsterdam. Greeat guys and service there.

As the saying goes : We have the watches, Cubans have the time ...

No way.

Thank you @MIKA27 for the detailed bio on Niki Lauda. Had the pleasure of having him on board to Singapore and he was a guest in the cockpit for landing there. Great personality and a true gentleman. RIP Niki Lauda.

Thanks Mike !! I was able to see it now and happy you are in VERY good company ... 🙂

Is there any way to watch the video ? I only get audio ... Alex_Ogrullosos.MOV

Second that ... great service and selection at Portmann.

Eddie Murphy tied up with Richard Pryor for sure ...

Thanks - I was actually looking to find and post the "Independence Cigars" rolled by hand commercial .... it was too "hot" to post 🤤

If you have very good contacts you will get any production cigar, the real thing, no problem. But: (Mostly) No band on it and no boxes for them. Just the real thing. But I am talking you've made friends over the years that you trust and know what to look for. There are a few boxes stolen in-transit from the factory to the warehouse or inside the factory, but : They would lack the paperwork and seals. And tourists do not have the factory contacts needed to get those few boxes. But there was a big robbery where mastercases of MC 80 destined for the Guanabacoa warehouse were stolen and replaced with stones having the same weight ... Now those boxes had all the required paperwork and proper seals. If you happen to be lucky and be offered those you are lucky, but it's highly doubtful they ended up in the streets of old Havana. And you still don't have a Factura to take them out w/o problems. The fake boxes industry is just that, an industry that has long been peddling fake cigars and produces also fake boxes, seals and stamps. Has been around for years and accounts I guess for 90 to 95% of fake boxes offered in varying quality. The rollers work in "Chinchales" or from home using whatever raw material there is. Remember there is no free market where to buy tobacco leaves. So whatever material there is will be used. Russian roulette. The question once again is : Why fly to Cuba and pay real money to buy/smoke fake cigars ?

He was extremely lucky to get 10 fake boxes without official Facturas out without getting them seized in HAV ... Fake boxes are cheap if you speak the lingo and can bargain. Never more than 25 to 40 CUC a box. But tourists mostly fall for the "tale behind the boxes" ... the uncle, father, cousin, grannie or Martian working in the factory and getting them out - or the "Co-Operativa" guys with a fake badge standing outside Partagas or La Corona. Or the official Cuban tour guide selling them on the side ... or the owner of your Casa who "happens" to have some boxes. Or the manager of a Paladar ... : http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/havana-november-2018-hole-in-the-wall-el-laurel-seafood-and-fauxhibas/ Who needs to fly to Cuba to buy/smoke fake Habanos - unless you want to "finance" your vacation there by selling them to unknowing people or via the bay back home ? That's fair. Let him enjoy his puchases.