Cuba Travel 2016 – Picture Gallery One

It’s not just the cigar enthusiasts flying in for the Festival and the 50-th Cohiba Anniversary that were in massive attendance this year – looks like everybody plus his grandmother and third cousins are invading Cuba and specially Havana these days fearing a sudden change that will take years or decades to come.

I had never seen Havana as crowded and filled with tourists like this time around. With weekly giant cruise ships bringing in several thousand the police had to literally close the Avenida del Puerto so all the vintage convertible cars could pick-up and deliver their passengers.

It was a tourist tsunami and funny enough the only quiet place undisturbed by the invasion was to be inside the eye of the storm, right in the center of Habana Vieja smoking a cigar with Reynaldo at Conde de Villanueva.

There were other quiet places as well and I was happy to have arrived before the Festival began and to spend some days of my two and a half weeks outside Havana.

This is a picture gallery of my first 10 days of which I shared some with my friends Ute and Patricia, showing them around the city and the cigar spots before they left to see more of Cuba.

We were fortunate to find a few Diplomaticos Excelencias hidden in a LCDH corner waiting for the Festival to open and grabbed some before they vanished into some black hole.

Patricia being a jewellery designer was immensely attracted by Jose Ernesto Aguilera’s work and received a long and very instructive tour of Humidores Habana.

We were well received and taken care of in many LCDH and I am specially grateful to Juanita, Carlos Robaina, Grecia and her lovely staff, Reynaldo and Hector Luis and family/staff for their friendship and company.

I met many old friends in Havana and made some new ones – I had the pleasure to meet, share time & cigars, show around and get to know Rocky Patel, a very laid back, friendly and respectful gentleman on his first visit to Cuba and he became a quite memorable and welcome member of the intimate group of friends.

A second gallery of my last week cigar and travel experiences with my buddy Frank will be posted next as well as more detailed trip reports.

Enjoy !

Nino