The Half Ashed Cigar Forum

I'm following intently and admittedly very jealous...

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Back home. WHAT A WEEK ! I cannot recommend going to cigar-mecca any more than after this week. Warm weather, humidity out the wazoo, smoky/stinky Old Havana with no polution controls or money from the people to be able to fix the problem, and cigars cigars cigars.

$2.20 for lunch and a beer where the Cubans eat.



Free concert in Old Havana. Great "Cuban Music". The people came out in droves.



My favorite place to eat. The sandwich shop. Ate there 3 times one day. $2 Cuban Especial sandwich was my main-stay. Fantastic people. Just down the street from my casa.



A garbanzo bean and pork mixture.





THIS sums up my trip...



Melia Habana





Hotel Comodoro bungalow looking out to the pool that goes through the place.



My cab ride was interesting. The car on the outside looks somewhat like a 1950's Ford, with lots of bondo and paint holding it together, but inside is another story. This is not an uncommon scene. A car barely holding together. This was the door panel on the inside. Both sides looked like this.



If you aren't belching blue smoke, you aren't allowed in Old Havana.



Everywhere. This is just the way things are done. New building like this or old. 'Git er done.





Hotel Ambos Mundos







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My Casa.

Living room area where I smoked cigars with different people in the other bedroom. 3 different couples came through, where we would have some rum and coke and a cigar and chat for a few hours.



My room



The two balcony doors open so I can smoke.







The front. My room top right 2 balconies.



View from a balcony.



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Amazing Z! Thanks for sharing the adventure!

Well all you bastards won't come down, so I have to entice you all as much as I can. I really wish you all would get down there. I talked to many many Americanos, and they all did the same thing; fly in from Mexico. No tourism trips, but then you get your freedom. We will see this week how everything went with them getting through customs, and their bills, but when I say there was a lot, there was a lot ! I didn't go down for any of the cigar dinners for the festival, and there were more there as well.

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Now for some of the real Havana. You don't see the filth and dirty conditions. You don't see people throwing garbage out the car window because it is what they do. You don't see the pictures along the malecon over the wall and all the garbage floating in the water. You don't see many pics of the buildings behind the beautifully restored facead....what you get are fun loving and interesting pictures. I went down with this in mind. Here are a few things I saw...

Between Miramar and Centro there is a small inlet where the city dumps out their river. This is where I found a man fishing. Garbage littered the ground. It stunk like a sewer. It was gross. There was broken car parts, broken cement pieces and general disaster in this small area. It is what it is. The next few pics are of this area.







Sure, along the Malecon, there is that one picture of Havana with the 3 buildings/houses in a row that are yellow, blue and red. This is litterally 1 block down from that beside a nice hotel building.





I don't know how many balconies I saw propped up by wooden supports from the ground to the under side as building were crumbling.

How many times do you see a building worked on so slowly that vines begin to grow on the scaffolding surrounding...




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Thanks for views of both the positve and negative, Zed. I hope they can continue (?) to work on the improvements of the infrastructure, as well as the general conditions for the entire populace. I'm sure it would be an eye-opening trip on many levels.

Would love to go one day. Thank you for allowing me to live vicariously through you, Zed!


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Opening up to the Americans is a problem that we have yet to figure out. The prices are going up like crazy is the last 4 months, informed to me by a knowledgeable Cuban. I stayed at the Hotel Conde de Villenueva in 2013. The room was $165/ night, which was ridiculous at that time. I went there many times for a cigar and internet connection, and found out it is now $385 in the slower season and $465 in the busy season for the same room. That is crazy ! The Cubans are thinking everyone with money will flock, but it prices out the rest of the world, plus the Americans that go once and then find out it is not what they hoped and don't return.

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Zedman05 wrote:The Cubans are thinking everyone with money will flock, but it prices out the rest of the world, plus the Americans that go once and then find out it is not what they hoped and don't return.

Worst news I've heard all day.
terrific pictures and commentary. Thanks Zed. I completely felt it more than when I see others' pics.