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The great mysteries? Yeti? Loch ness monster? the Pyramids? Pfffft......they pale in comparison to the greatest mystery of all: "Where do Cuba's Hot Chicks Go During the Day?" Have you ever noticed? At night they suddenly appear like vampires blackening the sky with their countless numbers. Millions of them flood the nightclubs, hotels and streets. yet....during the day.....Nada...zilch For years I thought they were sleeping waiting for dusk but apparently not. I have to thank Di for stumbling upon them as I would never have found them by myself. You see....Di took me to the San Jose market at the port of Havana. It is a huge indoor market that I have not visited before. Mind you I haven't been to a dentist in cuba either and I regard both market shopping and root canals to be roughly of similar pain. OH HOW WRONG I COULD BE! Picture this. the market is made up of a couple of hundred stalls each vying for your coin. Roughly half of these stalls are fronted by what appear to be models. They are not shy either. One even had the temerity (or good taste) to blow Di and I a kiss as we walked past. I am pretty sure it was for the both of us. It could have been for me.....or Di. Let's face it .....I win either way So next time you are in havana and you need to do a little shopping for gifts etal......San Jose market at the port.....thank me later .....and yes.... Di is thrilled with my newfound enthusiasm regarding havana shopping

Hmmm how long did it take you to tell...let us see not even 24 hours back at work He was like an excited little puppy having his first walk in the park or in this case, the market. "Not this stall Di, keep walking, third stall to your left go in there the shirts are better in this one " ....and so it went for over 2 hours. Then came the smooth talking, " Please don't come down from the step ladder just for us, the view is just great " or "could you please hold this shirt up against your chest to see what it looks like on" which resulted in a giggle from the lovely girl helping us. I swear I had to wipe the dribble from his chin at one stage We did laugh and I will take full credit for the new addition to Rob's tour of Cuba from now and all proceeds go to my shoe fund He didn't mention that we went back again a couple of days later just for one last look

Montecristo No 2 and an Oban 14 year single malt. Parasol Up at Wynn Las Vegas. Still in debt to this forum for introducing me to my favorite BYO friendly cigar spot in Vegas. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

2003 SCDH El Morro....superb! Think I liked it?

VR Unicos - 24:24 Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

H Upmann- Magestic (2016) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk H NUBMANN- NUBgestic!!

Bands slipped right off this Anejados:

I was speaking to a few people in Havana who are gung ho on the tobacco crop this year. It is looking excellent and the weather is holding. Planted was 18000 hectares in PDR. Another 6000 hectares was held back to be planted now . This was a little bit of insurance against bad weather during the initial planting. Fingers crossed but we are witnessing two back to back bumper quality crops

Tomorrow's 24:24

Earlier today Partagas Shorts DIC 14. Great little smoke for a cold day in January. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Let me know if you would find this useful. I often get asked to recommend Casa Particulares. I don't have a problem doing so except that I often don't have the details at hand. Right now I have three to list. In the cuba travel forum I was thinking of pinning a Casa particular thread where members can recommend. 1. Members had to have stayed there. 2. A couple of photo's required 3. A description of their experience is required 4. Contact details and current pricing required. A link to airbnb or other site is fine as well for this. Is there any other information that you would like to know? (within reason). Let me know if you believe this would be useful

Warm enough to enjoy an 8-9-8.

Santa was little late but i forgive him

apparently english fans were asked for a one word description of the series - the winner... "smithereens". perfect!

2003 SCDH El Morro....superb! Think I liked it?

PLA Mar 15 & Stone Cali-Belgique aged in red wine barrels with sour cherries Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

BPC - 24:24 Tasty.. Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

I pop into purchase a sombrero....they are there I am feeling the need for a pescado taco......they are there Some headache tablets at the pharmacia ......they are there The toilet...there....the corner store...there....the upmarket bar....there the beach bar.....there. The Fricken ferry........there. While I have no love for fakes, I am an admirer of remarkable business models. These people have it nailed. I am not sure who they are but hats off for achieving penetration into every nook and cranny of central and south america. There must be some major players involved. If any of you pirates are reading this....I would love to arrange a long lunch just to hear the story!

Vegas Robaina Familiar (2007) this afternoon. The first half was a gorgeous haze of salty chocolate, with spice. The last half transformed into deep leather, and wood, which was tasty, but didn't quite match-up to the first half. Overall, a very pleasant hour-long smoke.

Punch Coronations Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk

My very first Diplomatico No.2 last night, I was slightly worried that it may be too young as it's a May 2017 box, but i just couldn't resist them any longer.Thankfully, my worries were unfounded, and the cigar smoked like a sweetened spice bun, and it is one of the few smokes i've had where the taste of nuts (walnut/hazelnut) really came to the fore for 3 - 4 puffs in the last third. Delightful.I have smoked many a DC and Churchill, but this stick outlasted them, and took a good 2.5 hours to smoke.Looking forward to see how these develop over the coming months and years!

G'day Everyone, Been a long time between posts and thought I would share a write up of my Den. I finished (its never really finished though) it early 2017. Thanks too for everyone in my previous thread about finding some Spanish cedar in Brisbane. I do have a bit of it left if anyone is interested. It's mainly if 50mm x 50mm lengths, the lengths and widths are various though. The beginning 3m x 3.4m study. I built three and a half full cabinets. Each cabinet has a separate top and bottom. Built out of QLD Cedar plywood. The bar cabinet also has led lights that light up the bottles and the display cabinet has downlights. The humidor is lined with 5mm Spanish cedar and there are two separate humidors, each with a USB port. The top one is active and the bottom one is for storing other stuff at the moment. I use an oasis magna and I jerry-rigged up a couple of 120mm fans to replace the noisy 40mm ones that came with the unit. I can go into more detail around the build if anyone wants. The best thing is sitting back relaxing and watching tv. The chesterfields are comfy (they took about 6 months to find 2nd hand). The room has a ceiling exhaust fan with a tube that goes out to the eve. I've smoked a couple of times in there (the better half hates the smell of smokes). I've just got an ozone machine and I hope that is going to fix the smell issue and I will be able to smoke in the room anytime I want. Room is fingerprint locked (Gold Lion lock) to keep the kids out.

Here in the UK there seems to be a lot of momentum growing for James Norton to be the new James Bond. I was wondering who the FOH would next grant the license to kill? My thoughts for what they're worth, James Norton is a fine young actor, and capable of both menace and the right level of smugness. My default position is anybody as long as it's NOT Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy's idea of method acting, is adopting a limp, (perhaps an eyepatch for good measure) and mumbling to a more indecipherable degree than a latter day Brando. Michael Fassbender is another name floating around, and is the choice I would prefer. I think Bond should always be in his 40s and a little jaded. Capable of kicking your ass, but would rather push you into a snow machine, and say something witty as your guts get sprayed across the piste. I think Daniel Craig as Bond has been very necessary to flight off the competition of Bourne. He's been a very physical Bond, which has put bums on seats, but I would like to see a bit of the craftiness of Roger Moore stirred back into the roll. Anyway whats your pick FOH?

Hello everyone! Hope you all are having an awesome new year so far! One of the coolest moments I've had when smoking cigar is with my father playing a few rounds of chess. Knights taking his bishop or him putting me into a funny check all the while puffing on delicious stogies.

On the plane and we were handed a glass of Tattinger Champagne. Pyjamas were handed out and we duly got changed, settled back and looked forward to a fine meal and a long sleep on QF 16 (11:40 pm....LAX to Brisbane). What a great 16 days it has been! I cursed myself for not ringing Mike in Minnesotta but time got away from me today and I realised that at 11pm he would be burning furniture in order to keep warm. "Captain Qantas Speaking" "We have a small problem with an engine valve...it won't be long and we apologise for the delay" That was 11am. 2:30 am we were taken off the plane at LAX and herded into the ticketing area to collect our luggage and head to the appointed overnight hotels. Throughout the drama Di slept solidly and was awoken by the head steward when the decision was made to "abandon ship". "Are we there already?" ask's Di. "I don't think I had breakfast?" 350 unhappy people. 2 queues. The Qantas first/business/economy system is out the window. iIt is every man and woman for himself. Thankfully Di is like a Ninja as she tucks and rolls to secure a spot at the head of the queue. Qantas staff have drawn straws and only two stayed behind to face the wrath. Kids were crying. Parents angry. Qantas hands out peanuts and crackers.....but no water for 4 hours. Morons...all stores were closed. We hit the pillow at the Fairfield Marriot Airport hotel 6am. there were 200 in the queue for a room. People were strewn along the street. It could have been homeless people.....but I just like to assume they were Qantas customers who had just given up on life. We hit Hermosa beach today which is one of my favourite spots in Los Angeles. Had a lovely lunch and returned a few hours ago to the madness that is LAX. The scanning rules today were different to yesterdays. The yelling remained the same. The sad thing is that they just enjoy making people miserable. We made it through to the airport propper and up to the lounge. Sitting next to Australian Tennis Legend Rod Laver now. What a great bloke. He was also caught up in yesterday's failure to launch. There is an upside to everything! Off for another glass of Champagne. Salud and see you over the weekend!

I don't think the 16-17 cigars have been that bad considering how bad the 15-16 crop was. Yes, wrappers are generally sub-par (underfilling has nothing to do with the tobacco) and consistency is spotty but if this is a low quality point I'll live with it.

Yes, a little lost in translation. For example...Companies, is this a reference to Internacional Cubana de Tabacos S.A. (ICT) who produce under license to Habanos S.A. the Troya, Guantanamera and Belinda marcas, as well as Puritos, Clubs and Minis. These are all short fillers. In regards to short fillers, if we discount the ICT cigars, of which there are 29 and they are all short filler, there are currently 182 regular production cigars of which 17 are short filler only (including all Jose L.Piedra, La Flor de Cano and Quintero). There are plenty of cigar aficionados on this forum who prefer these short filler cigars, as well as the Por Larranaga Panatelas, the Rafael Gonzalez Panatelas Extra and even the Fonseca Delicias.

But you get a shiny travel humidor that won't hold humidity and only fits those 8 cigars with it! I'm buying TWO!!

Wasn't there a rumour a while ago about Idris Elba? If he can pull off a solid British accent, he would be stone cold cool.

I do not have the box, but I have pics, will ask the owner of the pics if its okay to post them and get back to you. They were rolled in Spain, cuban tobacco, with a license. Thats what makes it pretty cool IMO. They is hardly any info out there on these, halfwheel info came from a guy at Altadis is my understanding, I would love to hear if HSA has this burried in the books somewhere findable. I dont have that kind of pull down there. :-)

there are already several threads on just this. for me, if they want the tough, hard bloke, a little like craig, then tom hardy is it. if they want the more sophisticated style, henry cavill. norton can do evil well - happy valley - but i'd have him second tier. bond-lite. i do not want to go near anything like moore. he was fun and a few films not bad but spare me, that was the low point of the franchise. bond dressed as a clown. it is a wonder the series survived. but if craig doing two more (not too moore, thankfully), they don't need a decision for 3-4 years at least. lots change and some of those blokes will be too old.

MC No4 10 count with a couple years rest on them.

PE to begin the day Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

Johnny O Lancero WF 11/17 6 Jan 2018, 11:50 am Smell, slight sweet tobacco Touch, slight spongy Draw at cold, good with medium resistance Taste, fresh tobacco Wrapper Colorado, nice feel, Construction ok, a small soft spot close to the end First draw, tobacco, a bit of sweetness, hay Hay is getting stronger Good burn, light grey ash Strength light, Flavor light to medium Good smoke volume, blue grayish Here and there, a draw gives licorice, honey, and hints of coffee End of 1st third, flavor medium strength, More licorice and a bit of cookie dough 2nd third Strength medium Ash getting darker Character changed to dark coffee and earthy, still a bit of sweetness Draw and burn good Strength medium to full now Licorice is back, sweet honey Last third Strength is going up Now with the cigar being warm the area close to the end shows that it is under filled. With some squeeze and stronger draw can be managed Still good straight burn and lots of smoke. Strong dark cherry with sweet espresso Towards the end strength is back to medium Cherry is gone, hay is back Last inch, nearly every draw has a different flavor mentioned above. Finished at 13:10 pm A really good cigar Besides the mentioned flavors, there have been quite a few I can’t describe. Very enjoyable to smoke. Small downfall with the under filled area which did not really trouble me. A good to very good smoke at this point which I am happy to add into my rotation as it suits my flavor preferences.

Actually three threads would be just right. we can discuss the rum and Hotel National ashtrays available.

Partagas- Shorts (2014) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Shorts NUB!!

Ohh this too tonight... Psd4 One of my favorite habanos for sure. This was a May '15 so got a little young in the middle but the beginning and end were great. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Thanks FoH for this 2016 JLS2 from the havanathon sampler. [mention=5074]El Presidente [/mention][mention=17316]ferrero[/mention] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^^ Hard to follow that! But I am enjoying this Partagas CG Anejados (USE June 07):

One thread this weekend is a review, this one is the all encompassing Johnny-Os thread. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Monte 4 (AEM MAY 14) First cigar after a bout of what was apparently Australian Flu. Slightly weird taste but mostly as expected, which is why I went for something both distinctive and familiar. Thunder & Lightening '75 - '15

Baby it’s cold outside

Past few days: the RA XXL and an 05 Partagas Presidentes. Both fantastic smokes. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk

C&C Time. PSD4 Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

The 2014 is getting better and better

We hooked up with Jorge (George) on the first day of our havana trip. We hit it off straight away. Jorge speaks fluent English, is a raconteur, historian, tour guide, problem solver and just a decent all around bloke. Taxis in Havana are not cheap anymore and Jorge charges 100 CUC a day for personal hire. Split is amongst three (lada) and it is a bargain to have someone trustworthy and excellent from sun up to late into the night/early morning. Take down his details although I will move this to the Cuba travel and classifieds section. As always, the only people will spruik on FOH are those that provide an exceptional product, service, experience. Jorge fits the bill! If you need a driver for a day or a week....shoot him an email. let him know Rob from Oz sent you. Jorge Luis Clavijo Mobile +535 361 0146 j.clavijo@nauta.cu www.facebook/taxiClavijo

Keep us up to date with what you are smoking over the Christmas period by posting a review in 'The Waterhole'. Simply review the cigar you smoked, post some photos and title your topic like this - "CNY - Partagas Short - OBM ABR 16" All entries go in the draw to win a three pack of Trinidad La Trova. Four packs to be won. One pack for the review with the most likes and three packs in the random draw. Winners will be drawn on January 5th (local time). Have a great Christmas and NY all. Happy reviewing!

Saw those and three new Montrecristos with this band on a friend’s post on instagram. Seems the relaunch of a vintage model with a who-knows-what in it is the latest. Your understanding of the facts such as history and leaves is certainly deeper than mine Frank. I am just a very interested collector as usual. The common thread to it all seems to be following the retail model of the Behike: box of 10; 52/54/56; Fancy schmancy; sexy. What is it? Not as important. CB