The Cigar Story

The Cigar Story

You know there has to be a cigar story. On our first trip back at Christmas, we almost got arrested buying cigars from a friend of a cousin of our driver….lol….you can read that blog to hear the whole story. Needless to say we are ready to smoke those Cohiboes that Austin (the bestman) bought for his brother Brandon in Aug in California….for only $40 for a box of 24 cigars (US Customs allows each person to bring one box of cigars back to the US for personal consumption only)

This time is was Craig’s son who was in search for a box of Cohiboes. The second nite as we were walking the streets, Austin and Craig’s son disappeared. We had to retrace our steps and all of a sudden from the balcony above I hear “Hi Pops”….it is austin and he is someone Apartment looking at cigar boxes WITHOUT telling us he was going upstairs….dam shame

Anyways I read him the riot act about disappearing…especially into someone’s house…and worse yet, taking Craig’s son with him….double dam shame

So now it was the last nite in Havana…and they were still in search of that box of cigars…teenage boys can really stay focus on one idea and one idea only….lol…a box at the store was $240 for 24 cigars. No way Austin is paying that kind of money.

Again we are walking about 14 blocks in the wrong direction from the convent/hotel…and Craig and I notice Austin disappearing around the corner with two black men with no shirts on…and the streets they are going into are NOT part of the tourist section and have no lights and very very dark….

We follow and we see the men telling Austin and Craig’s son to go up some stairs…it is super dark and does not look good at all (don’t these kids ever watch movies where tourist get rob overseas ?? or worst yet where young boys and girls get kidnapped !!)

So we tell the boys they can NOT go upstairs…the business must be done on the street….i tell the boys that this is not good business…that they will probably get cigars with sawdust in them…way to strange

So we start to walk away….and the men start to follow us….they have the box of cigars with them and are ready to sell…wait until they hear how little Austin wants to pay for them….thank God we get back to the tourist section and policeman on every corner…the men back off and call Austin some bad names.

Whew that was close….lol

We get directions from the police man on how to get back to the Plaza Vieja and then he asked us, “by the way are interested in buying some cigars ?”….i almost fainted….lol…I did not know whether he was serious or whether he was following our little episode…or what

But now the boys were more determined than ever to buy some cigars….so we went back to the original sellers in the Tourist section (which I trust a lot more) for $60. Meanwhile we buy some more souvenirs and the woman gives Craig’s son a little statue that he was looking at for his room back in DC. Mission Accomplished….(Austin just had one of the cigars with his friends in Tampa …and he said they were very strong, but good cigars).

We went back to the hotel/convent and had another big spades game until we all fell asleep. Morning came too quickly.