With the Festival officially, we had began the countdown to our return; Saturday was our last full day in Havana before boarding our return flight. After a morning in the patio of the Nacional, we took a stroll through the old town and Calle Obispo, to find ourselves on the beautiful terrace of the Parque Central for some lunch under the scorching Havana sun.

Our only plan for the day was a trip to Humidores Habana, a small humidor factory outside Havana and near Vigora park with a huge reputation and some amazing creations.

Alex, greeted us with a warm smile and perfect English and showed us around the factory showroom, where a small sample of their exquisite work on display. We met Jose Ernesto Aguilera, the founder of Humidores Habana, who is a very pleasant and extremely talented man, who has put his heart and soul in his factory in the last 10 years, creating some amazing masterpieces.

Jose Ernesto, a silversmith by trade, began working with antique woods in a tiny workshop with low ceilings and almost no ventilation. His attention to detail and passion quickly paid off and he is now considered one of the most talented craftsmen in Cuba, having created several of the Gala Auction pieces over the years and hundreds of privately commissioned humidors.

Jose, with the help of Alex, showed us around every corner of the factory, showing us how much attention they are paying to small details. Every piece we saw in the showroom was perfect, and practicality was taken into consideration. We saw Jar replicas made out of precious wood, large humidors with remotely controlled opening drawers and newly finished antique replica humidors for Habanos. The guys at Humidores Habana have not only the skills and knowledge, but also the creativity to create some amazing pieces.

Knowing how hard it is to find raw material in Cuba when working with precious wood, we had to ask Alex and Jose how do they find their aged wood. Jose said that all aged wood is salvaged, mostly from fallen buildings, where huge beams of old wood have been holding roofs for centuries. Amazingly, one of the showroom remotely controlled humidors was operated by an old washing machine motor! Cubans have to work with what they can get their hands on and these results where simply astonishing.

After our tour of the factory, we headed back to the Nacional for a couple of cigars and then out for dinner to Santi’s Palladar, a well hidden seafood restaurant in Jaimanitas in west Havana. Santi’s palladar is a must for seafood lovers, but you need someone to know how to get you there. Situated on the river banks, Santi’s cannot be seen from the road.

We had some fantastic seafood, accompanied by some great Hamlet Salomones. One of the highlights of the night was a gift presented to Rob Fox for his upcoming 40th birthday, presented from Hamlet; a baseball bat, rolled entirely by tobacco by hamlet.

Andy came up with the idea and asked Hamlet if he could roll a cigar in the shape of a bat, as Rob had been the captain of the retailers baseball team in the previous years. Hamlet, of course, wouldn’t be satisfied by making a scaled version, so he proceeded in making a full size bat all by himself! He said he spent at least 12 hours working on it to make sure it was smokeable…

As an amazing week was coming close to an end, we finished off the night in “El Gato Tuerto”, also known at this stage as “The Irish Embassy”. We all had a fantastic week, got to catch up with some good friends and make some new ones. The countdown for the 17th Habanos Festival is already on, hasta luego amigos!