Cuba Bound: Day 4

We got up and met at 9 to have another delicious breakfast prepared by Marisela's staff. It was 5 CuC for each person and was very plentiful. In fact we were starting to see a pattern. Three big meals a day! Yikes this could be trouble. Today we planned on touring the Partagas cigar factory. While none of us are really cigar smokers we all really wanted to see this factory. Cuba has such a history of making fine cigars that we knew it would be fun and interesting to see the process.

We walked down to the Hotel Libre and bought tickets for the tour. It was about 11 by the time we waited in line and got tickets. The lady told us that the last tour was at 12 but that it was only about 10 minutes away so we would have no problem. Tim and my Dad were waiting in the lobby and had befriended a couple that had just arrived and were giving them all of the information that we had learned over the last few days. One side note Julie did really well with Spanish even to the point where if we were talking to someone who could speak English she would tell them that she wanted to practice. They really seemed to appreciate the effort. So before we got our tour tickets Julie did a google translate of what was needed to say to get our tour tickets. When she read it to the tour guide. They obviously could tell exactly what she meant which was pretty cool but when she got the last line they looked perplexed. Anyway as it turned out she asked for 4 tickets for the tour and said we wanted to get there by plane. Ha ha! What else did google translate have us saying?!?!? So we grabbed a cab to the factory and when we went in we found out the factory had moved and this location only housed a store. They gave us the address to the factory location but the address seemed to be unfamiliar to all of the cab drivers that we tried. Finally one decided to give it a shot. Julie was using her GPS and after many turns stopping and asking directions twice we finally made it.

We were grouped with other English speaking people and had to wait about 15 minutes for our tour to start. The building was three stories tall and really had a great aroma about it. When our tour started they warned us that we would be climbing a lot of stairs and offered Dad and elevator ride. Of course he would have none of it and climbed every stair that the rest of us did. The factory was really cool. We saw everything from where workers were being trained to make cigars all the way up to workers who were making their finest cigars. It was really a sight to see. You can see a cigar being made here!

After our tour we decided to go get some lunch......after all we were pretty committed to three big meals a day ha ha! We walked a couple of blocks and caught yet another classic car and headed out a restaurant called Paladar Los Amigos. It was highly recommended by Anthony Bourdain no less. When we arrived it did not look like much but as usual we were guided around back and were once again brought to a really cool patio area where we had a beer and looked at menus while we waited for a table. I love just relaxing and sitting around these places and just watching the people. Americans are still pretty rare in Cuba so it was fun just to take it all in. When we got our table we quickly learned that they were out of several dishes that we were hoping to try. Supply in Cuba does not always meet demand and it is something that they struggle with on a daily basis. We picked some other items and had a great meal all the same. After lunch we headed back to our home to rest and maybe take a quick nap.

After relaxing for a bit it was time to head back down to Old Havana and eat dinner at Restaurante Van Van. It was the place that we had made a reservation the night before. As usual it had a very cool vibe and the food was really good. The drink menu was painted on an old record. We had a great leisurely dinner and decided to walk around a bit and see if we could find a bar with music. We ended up at the La Lluvia de Oro. It was a classic bar with a great band. It was fun watching the waiters ordering drinks from the bartender using only hand signals. The band was fun to listen to and had a lot of energy. We hung out for awhile and then headed to another bar called Bar Montserrat. It had an old time feel with big open windows and another great band. These bands are usually made up of at least 6 members and they usually pass the hat between performances. Finally we decided to head back to our house and call it a night.