No ordinary tour

Breakfast at Lilly's this morning. On pulling up at the table Fe said it was like having breakfast at Mrs Parry's in St Brelades. The dinning set had white-studded leather backed chairs and glass topped table. It even had a centre piece of red glasswear, oh and what a dinning table it was! Interestingly the butter for our toast was a product of Germany, that's a long way to transport refrigerated butter!

Firstly we had some dull stuff to do, somehow we had to locate an internet connection, which is easier said than done in Cuba as access to the internet is a no no for Cubans. We needed to send further info regarding a little accident that happened back in the Rockies. Let's just say the insurance claim saga, in true form, has started to build up speed. Typical.

On guidance from Lilly we headed for a luxury hotel with Lisa. Lisa being a new house guest at Casa Lilly. Lisa, from Germany, had been staying at a surf camp in Costa Rica and was now making her way back home via Cuba and New York. Someone else just out doing their own travel route. That´s what´s great about staying in hostel type accommodation All the tales of worldwide different travel combinations.  We sorted our stuff out and left even though the lobby had the most fantastic smell of freshly ground coffee whafting through. The remainder of the day was a classic example of how random travelling can be.

It was off to the 1:30 tour of Partagas Cigar Factory, one of the oldest and largest cigar factories in Cuba. Here famous brands of cigars like Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta and Cohiba are still hand made. We had to wait in the regulation gift shop for the tour to start, that old chestnut. But this gift shop wasn't the average gift
shop. This one was more of a gentlemans club. On entry we were confronted with every type of world renowned cigar, all available to try right under our nose, stored in the finest looking mahogany and
glass cabinets. Many of the cigars were priced at least 4 times cheaper than if purchased in the UK. All being sold by cool, cigar tooting Cuban Del Boys. It was clear to see these staff really loved their jobs. This place was ace. To one side a regular bar, leather winchester studded chairs, high barstoods and oversized ashtrays. To the other a small stained glass door which led through to a VIP lounge, which really anyone could use as long as it involved smoking something that you'd just purchased. Even to a couple of non-smokers this was a sight to behold. We seemed to have been transported back in time to days where these smells dominated parties, weddings, funerals and christmas, and like we've said, it was and felt truly ace.

The tour started at least a good Cuban standard 30 minutes late, it was a no bag and camera tour, hate that! But as this was Cuba we felt possibilities of great shots was strong. So the bag was the only thing deposited and as for our camera, along with other tour members, it was slung over the shoulder ready for action! And from here on in this is where the fun and sheer corruption started.

Spread over 5 floors. A floor alone completely dedicated to trainee apprentices. And there was not a spare seat to be had.
20,000 cigars leave this old factory per day, plus the ones leaving unoffically! The whole process is completed from start to finish totally by hand. The process begins with the matching up of like coloured tobbaco leaves, for pure asthetics only, no other reason. Then a mixing of the blends is carried out by a skilled blender who chooses different types of leaves depending on the type of cigar working on. These are then rolled together into the classic cigar shape to a required length and girth depending on type.
A percentage are then checked for density. Finally they are labelled and sorted into cedar wood boxes. Darker leafed ones on the left working to the lighter shaded ones on the right.

This all takes places 5 days a week, 7am to 5 pm, week in week out. A hand production line producing over 5 million cigars per year. As we walked through each stage of the process more and more people were taking photos. At first discreetly from the hip, then as we moved on more and more people were hanging back to blatantly take shots of the fascinating production line. Surely soon someone would get caught and
the cry for "no cameras" would go up.

At the end of each floor stood a large TV screen mounted on a stage next to where a mircophone on a stand stood.From this mic, every morning someone reads the local newspaper out loud to the workforce. Then in the afternoon a few chapters from a romantic novel are read out. All to a hard working, smoking audience.
This factory probably hadn't changed a bit since the day it opened. How it hadn't burnt to the ground I don't know. Let's just say the H&S aspect was pretty low! Further photos taken.

The tour group were steadily and slowly spreading out, chatting to workers, going the wrong way and, of course, taking photos. Then the cry went up from our guide Tamara, with some humour, "hey come here, no cameras". She must have felt like she was herding cats. All the while further photos taken.

Now we've seen boxes of the finished article at home but to witness the whole Cuban cigar process in Cuba with our own eyes was just great. Further photos taken.

The tour ended with us all crowding round a large board displaying all brand labels. Here Tamara explained the history for all the types of cigars that are made and then sold around the world. Finally Tamara lost her rag as the "no camera" policy had been pushed to new limits. As in mid conversation a red dot, from a camera's pre flash, appeared on the board. With a smile she shouted 'right you lot, down the stairs, and all out, this tour is finished'. She had seen the funny side and posed for some photos at the end. Further photos taken!

The workers we'd just met earn 15 US dollars per month. Many staff make up for low wages through selling cigars taken directly from the production line. This was going on throughout the whole tour, guys
would pop out of dark corners, hovering on landings and in toilet doorways producing cigars for sale from the front of their large apron pockets. 3 cigars wrapped in the days newspaper for half the price of the ones we'd be faced with in the shop. We can honestly say it was the most unique tourist tour we've ever taken.

So back to the fab cigar shop where further deals could be negotiated. Cuban peso's being the ace card when it came to closing the deal. One of the cigars we wanted to purchase was out of stock! We were not surprised as this has happened in other places we had visited, where a local product is made but wasn't readily available. For example Puerta Vallarta was home to a large Corona factory. But in the town you couldn't pick up this beer in any of the shops! We all laughed together as how the hell can a cigar factory shop be out of cigars! The main reason being most cigars rolled, packed and stacked upstairs are instantly exported. These beauties are going worldwide, all with huge mark-ups.

In the shop we got chatting to two couples from Syria; Maher, Shafik, Rasha and Dalia. All equally excited on all things cigar related. Our arabic is a little rusty! But thankfully their english was brilliant. We had a real chuckle with them regarding the tour as they too were taking sneaky photos on the way round. Over cigars we chatted about Cuba, travelling and Syria as its not everyday we bump into folk from this way. On mass we headed out onto the Museo de la Revolucion.

A place described as 3 floors devoted to the natural rebellion of the Cuban people. The place was packed full of info. By the time we reached the top floor we felt battle-weary ourselves. There were amazing photos, one shot captured the cringing image of an American marine drunkenly urinating on a statue of Jose Marti. And of course many other classic photo images that are widely recognised throughout the world of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

All the smoking, excitement, laughter and history had brought on quite a hunger and thurst. However nice, Lilly's breakfast was a 7 hour distant memory. So we all agreed to head for the famous Bodeguita Del Medio. A place where back in the day Ernest Hemingway drank his mojitos stating "nothing but excellent and most refreshing mojitos". Errol Flynn crowned it "the best place to get drunk"! Although it suffered an abortive bomb attempt in 1997, which caused non-fatal injuries and considerable damage to the interior, today it was very much alive and buzzing. Local bands came and went and we just sat round and sipped our mojitos and ate our best traditional Cuban meal yet. Since the post-bomb years Bodeguita Del Medio had been revamped a lot. But each time visitors are always eager to add their signature scrawl to the already crammed with graffiti walls. So we duly added our RTW mark.

As we randomly retraced our steps back towards the cathedral both myself and Dalia decided to pop into fantasticly qwerky salon for a haircut. Luckily for me you can't really go wrong with a number one all over. Dalia was not so impressed.

Syrians, smoking, stews, samba and head shaves - tonight we went to bed very happy people. But with heavy hearts as this crazy lifestyle will soon all be over. Meeting people like the phenomenon, aka the Syrians, Maher, Shafik, Rasha and Dalia doesn't make it any easier for us to deal with the fact that this road trip is coming to an end. Tonight they have all joined the ever growing list of great people we've met on this wee trip of ours.

We know its going to be tough going from unplanned, truely magical days like these to then switch to normal life! Today we have had yet another day where its difficult to put our feelings into words. Have tried, for the sake of travel blogging, but feel I have only scratched the surface of feelings.

What a peach of a day.