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I
have actually lost count of how many Partagas Festivals
I have attended in Havana but I reckon this may well be
my thirteenth. It�s rather confusing as I can�t seem to
get a definitive answer whether this Festival was the 14th,16th
or 21st depending on how you count them (!)
So
after relaxing with a facial and massage
at the Virgin Upper class lounge in
Gatwick to prepare me for 10 � hours
of
no smoking I settled into my flat bed
for my 57th trip to Havana !
The usual Partagas Short
at Jose Marti
(smoking
ban of course not
particularly policed)
and we headed straight
over to the Melia Habana
for a bit of a herf to
get us in the Havana
Festival mood :) bought
a box of Partagas E2�s (
which hardly lasted for
the 4 days) and sipped a
few HC7�s.
My smoking chums and I spent a
long day enjoying fabulous
sunny and hot weather visiting
the Indian Caves, Robaina�s
Finca
(where the seedlings had
just been planted) Pinar del Rio
and beautiful Vinales which
always looks like a postcard to
me.
Herfed our way through a baggie
of assorted smokes including
E2�s,D5�s as well as Punch Serie
D�Oro no.1 that my friend Zaffie
had brought from London ( talk
about bringing coals to
Newcastle!) dinner at Prado
Neptuno and smokes on the
Terrace of the Nacional whilst
listening to some good if not
incredibly loud music (maybe I
am getting old but my friend Valerio assured me there are
only too volumes in Cuba � too
loud� and extremely loud� !)
Someone emailed me to say that
one side of the Nacional Terrace
was now �no smoking� but I
couldn�t see anyone without without a cigar
in their hand!
 
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Herfed at Partagas VIP and
caught up with a friends from
all over the world as ever and
bought some cracking Partagas
books with robustos and
piramides- v. cool. Smoked a few
at Palacio too before doing a
bit of a walking tour round old
Havana including the rum
factory, La Bodegita del
Medio,Floridita,Villa Nueva,
Camra Oscura and a great
ice cream shop where I
introduced my friends to the
pleasures of smoking a good
Havana whilst eating vanilla ice
cream!
This was possibly the best
Partagas Festival I have ever
attended as the venue for the
gala dinner was at the
incredible �Tropicana� which
beats any and every show I have
seen in the worlk
(and I have seen quite a few!)
Great bunch of friend at our
table including Amir and Tim
from Canada who I meet up with
at every Festival, Rob Fox from
JJ, Zaffie and Arturo and cigar
journalist Nick Hammond. We were
treated to cigar after cigar
throughout the evening together
with copious amounts of wine and
rum-finishing off with a bottle
of HC7, very nice!
I bumped in to
Colin Ganley
from European
Cigar Journal
who gave me a
new cigar book
called �Le Snob�
which was a nice
surprise as
there�s a short
chapter that I
wrote for it
with a nice
photo of me ( no
idea when that
happened!)
Massimo from
Italy ( no
moustache this
year!) conducted
the auction in
his inimitable
style and was
very successful
in raising some
38,000 C.U.C.
for charity-
well done
Massimo.
�Amigo�s de
Partagas� were
presented with
fabulous boxes
of special size
and specially
banded cigars
and I will
proudly display
mine in my
London humidor.
The show
followed the
dinner and was
as breath taking
as ever. I�ll
try and wham
some movie clips
on to our
Facebook page in
the next day or
two
Herfed a few in
the lounge at
Jose Marti
airport before
the flight back
home to finish a
memorable
Festival trip
and my last
overseas trip of
the year. I
think I have
spent 6 months
out of the UK
this year so
it�s good to be
back at the
office�..if only
till the
February�s
Festival del
Habanos.
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