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After reading so many great accounts (and seeing the great photos) of everyone’s time in Cuba, I was inspired to write my own little piece about one of the more memorable days I had there. Please bear in mind my writing skills are rubbish and my photography skills less so. It was 4 am on Wednesday - and Don Ayala encouraged us to go to bed (after 3 "just one more night caps") because we had an early start. The details he passed on were a little vague… but he told us he and Jose had arranged a visit to a “little humidor factory” that made custom made humidors. He said the humidors that they make generally feature as the Habanos Festival auction humidors. To be entirely honest, I wasn’t overly enthused by the prospect of getting up at 7:30am to do that. It sounded like it could be interesting… but certainly not memorable. I mean, we’re in Cuba… a place of minimal wealth and a poor use of their natural resources – it would be foolish to expect that “custom made humidors” would be any different to what I had seen right throughout Cuba for the last week – from the ‘Widow Maker’ hot water shower heads with raw electrical wire inches above the stream of flowing water.... and electrical wall sockets / switches of Casa Particulares……to the home made (two man operated) lawn mower at El Laguito… to the beat up Jalopies in every street... Our good buddy Jose arrived. We had breakfast, and then made the ½ hour drive out to one of the back streets, of another back street, in Eastern Havana. I dragged my butt out of the cab and looked at this building and thought to myself “Hmmm, this looks like they’ve done a nice job of setting up a little business… kudos to the presentation guys…” After meeting one of the two proprietors (sorry, their names escape me) he walked us through the woodworking part of the shop. In my past life I worked in manufacturing (in a state-of-the-art metalworking workshop), and I was suitably impressed that these guys had very good equipment, well layed out and in very good condition. Jose translated for us; the owner explained that even though they had nice equipment, the raw wood and timber was the hardest challenge they faced. Cuba didn’t have timber mills or plantation timber for industrial use, so they sourced suitable wood from wherever they could – discarded furniture scraps, rotten floorboards, old window frames…. anywhere they could. We were then taken to a room where there were some completed desktop humidors on display. They looked very nice, though my attention was quickly taken away from them by some of the more artistic and ‘one off’ pieces they had completed. There was a beautifully made bicycle humidor where every element was completely made of wood… including the tyres, ‘leather’ saddle etc… So, things went pretty well and after we finished in the display room I figured we would likely be heading back home. It turns out that wasn’t the case at all… We were then led across the road, though a rusted metal fence, into a run down property that looked like the basement of one of the local casas. Not really sure what we were going here for… but I’ve learnt to relax and go with the flow by now We met the other owner inside, and he was introduced to us as the mastermind of these humidors. He was an energetic, larger than life figure, who oozed charisma! His manner was one of utmost pride and humility all rolled into one. He showed us one of their nearly completed projects – the axe / wedge humidor. Our jaws were on the dusty floor as we stared in awe at what these guys had created. And the more we looked at it… the more impressed we became. The detail was extreme! We were then taken into what was literally the sub-floor area of the building we had just entered. It was a crouch for us to get into, and the ceiling height was less than 6 foot high. Cuba definitely isn’t setting standards for Occupational Health and Safety! In here there were four guys hard at work… all with extreme concentration and care. They were making the ornamental pieces that adorn the humidors. They worked with wood, ivory, metal and just about anything else you could think of. Their talents were nothing short of amazing. The detail was superb and the craftsmanship impeccable. It was clear that these guys weren’t just running a little humidor manufacturing business. They were artisans and craftsman of the highest order. Below is a humidor project that they have been commissioned to create for Arnold Schwarzenegger. The pictures don’t do justice to either the wood work or the sculpture that will sit in the center of the ‘crater’. Aside from the impressive artistic vision and quality work these guys produce from a humble setup, one of the things that struck me most was the manner, pride, welcoming enthusiasm and humility these guys had. I showed these pictures to Hamlet when we were at Jose’s house a couple of days later, and seeing his awe at these (considering all the amazing humidors he is likely to have seen in his time) was definitely cool! It was an absolute privilege to have them invite us to look at what they do. Thank you guys! May you get the recognition you deserve.