Havana bound, at last!

[Simon Bolivar]

Just a line to say we are all packed & waiting for our taxi to take us to Brussels airport 0500 tomorrow morning.
I have spent the last 4yrs reading of others trips to Cuba & never really thought I would make it. Fortune has turned in my favour & Mrs Bolivar agreed to spend our 20th Wedding Anniversary 'honeymoon' in Cuba. Of course this is not lads trip we have to fit in romantic & evenings & 9 days in the 'all inclusive' at Varadero but I'll try to stuggle through that & enjoy the holiday as a whole.
Bad news to start with is that it's possible the Partagas factory has closed for re-furb after the Festival:eviltongue: We'll try a visit on Monday just incase the shop is open at least. Anyway looking for a cab pof 50 Boli CG's & some Monte No2 Reserva. Fingers crossed, will let you all know how it went on our return.:cowboyic9:

[Superbrother]

Great stuff, hope you have a splendid time.

[bigbarneyhotdog]

:849:Hope you both enjoy yourselves mate :41:

[spirit_of_will]

Have a totally enjoyable and relaxing break... spent my honeymoon out there last Dec and loved every minute of it. My first Cuban was had in Havana after a chat with the barman at the Nacional! A trip round the Partagas factory and I'm seemingly hooked... bloody wish I knew then what I know now!

You'll love Havana... so much to see and take in. And Varadero is perfect for chilling out... gorgeous long stretch of beach - try and walk its length!

Enjoy!

[PoohBore]

I hope you have a fabulous time, I love the place. Try the shop in the playa Americas shopping centre. Lovely staff and they a nice selection of stuff. Where are you staying in varadero?

[travisbickle34]

Enjoy Mr Bolivar. I am ill with jealousy :biggrin1:

[spooner]

Have a superb time, one of my must get to destinations for obvious reasons.....and again enjoy it...

[monkey66]

Have a great time Simon.

[J Cano]

Have a safe trip my friend. If it is not to much to ask could you bring me that Hoyo Humidor from the Habanos Auction. Thanks :cool:

[Eddie]

You must have persuasion techniques the Gestapo would be proud of. Have a good trip and congrats on 20 years!

[Moon Dancer]

</SPAN>:smile::wave:</SPAN><O:p</O:pAdiós,señor </SPAN>y la señora Bolívar</SPAN><O:p</O:p
</SPAN></SPAN><O:p</O:p

[SmokeyDave]

Superb, enjoy every minute, hopefully we will get there too one day.

[nicwing]

Despite everything that the Cuban lack of a communications system could throw at and the fact that I left my phone charger in Pinar del Rio, I managed to meet up with Simon and his lady wife at a cigar store in Old Havana on Monday afternoon. We had a great smoke and a beer and wandered the old town for a while before I took my leave.
I had an update text from them on Tuesday just before I left to say that they had landed in Vinales and had made it out to the Robaina farm so sounds like they were doing well.

Simon has some more pictures of our meet on his camera which I am sure he will post when he gets back but here for now are a couple of mine:

http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww24/Humbert_bucket/Cuba%20Feb%202011/IMG_3073.jpg

http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww24/Humbert_bucket/Cuba%20Feb%202011/IMG_3071.jpg

[cohibaIV]

Cool that you both meet up Nic..

Good to have you back in old cold Blighty too..

[Simon Bolivar]

64326431
Well back in Blighty & back at work. Had an amzing trip. I am only offshore for a week this trip & things are hectic so I expect to wait until I get home, can marry up my pics with the best of the wife's & then I'll start a full report but just to reply to Nic, here is the photo my wife took of our brief but pleasant mini Havava herf.
I have a pre-rev Farach & Nic has a Hoyo Epi No 2 '99, both I believe matched the occasion.

[Simon-JG-hr]

Glad to hear you had a good trip - looks like the excellent little UKCF mini-herf in Havana was much enjoyed by the lucky participants...

[RickMG]

Simon, I can't believe I just saw this thread today. When I read your first post I was wondering what happened because I knew you were supposed to leave awhile ago. I am so glad you had a great time and can't wait to see the pictures. Did you know before you went that Nic would be there? What a cool place to meet up and herf. One of these days I might be allowed to go there as I want to so bad.

What did you do for your anniversary and how was the resort? Hope your wife had fun on the trip. I hear the resorts are fantastic but never heard from someone I kind of know who's actually been there. :)

[Simon Bolivar]

Hi Rick, good to hear from you. Yes Nic contacted me before I left & we swapped mobile numbers & hoped to meet but comms weren't easy & dragging the wife around on our 'honeymoon' (we never had one 20yrs ago), to see a cigar mate was stretching things a bit but it worked out ok in the end. Wife amused herself taking photos of the noisy peacock (great comments on Trip advisor, likes everyone to wake early apperently!).
Nic was very gracious & gave us a bit of of tour afterwards inc. taking us to the local flea market on the harbour, where we searched for a suitable peice of art to remember our holiday by.
For our anniversary we went to the Nacional, which despite others previous write ups we thought was great. The resort was fine & was the wife's pay back for letting me go & do what I wanted for the first 5 days in Havana & Vinales. All I had to do was sit by the pool for 9 days to please her. Hmmm. Sounded like a good idea at the time. Anyway full details later with photos, hope the tales & photos will help persuade your wife to swap hols in Venice or Ireland for Havana & Valdero soon.
6433Just a reminder, the Brit's were here before!

[Eddie]

Glad you had a good time. I think I've persuaded my GF that Cuba is a good idea for this summer. It will be our first holiday in 5 years so hopefully it lives upto our expectations. Just hope I can afford to stock up on cigars as a memory.

[Mark3142]

Simon

Good to see the Union Flag fluttering overseas but it's such a shame it's upside down!!!!!

[Cigar-aficionado]

I see you herfed, and met the peacock, at the Conde de Villanueva then Simon. Wife and I stayed there 2 years ago for 8 days and enjoyed every minute...hoping to convince her that we should go again and stay there once more as it was so central to everything

[Simon Bolivar]

Good luck Eddie, hope you manage to persuade the GF & get a trip there too.
Mark, I guess the last Brit out hung it upside down as the reconised sign of distress. To think we swapped it for Florida, which we then lost anyway!
Andy, hope you get to go back, yes the Conde' is a great location & a great place to find cigars, more of which later...:41:

[Mark3142]

I think the only distress down there would be finding all the cigar shops closed!!

I remember as a young sprog soldier in the late 80's posted to Germany hanging the Union Flag upside down on top of RHQ. There what some bollocking from the RSM!!! 20+ years later and I can still see the hate in his eyes for me.

[RickMG]

:biggrin1: It's not the wife I have to convince to be able to go, she wants to go there as bad as I do. It's my Uncle Sam (US Govt). Glad you had a great time and hope you had enough good smokes to make those nine days around the pool worth it. :849:

[Simon Bolivar]

I believe the usual route is to Mexico & fly from there. As a matter of interest the Cubans didn't stamp our passport, sure if you asked them, they wouldn't stamp your's either Rick. Then as far as Uncle Sam is concerned you vacationed in Mexico. We actually ended up in Cancun but that's getting ahead of the story:rolleyes:

[a4turbos]

Was the Partagas factory open when you were there? Im off to Havana on Wednesday and looking forward to visiting it...or something similar..
cheers
Steve

[Simon Bolivar]

We had heard a rumour it was supposed to shut after the festival for a re-fit but it was open when we went Monday 28th Feb. It was very busy & the touts were out in force, take care & enjoy!