Cigars! Cancun's got 'em!

I'll be straight with you all. I really wasn't convinced by this trip to Cancun organized by my lovely one. I promised to be really quiet about the whole thing, but there were some glitches that made me nervous. Anyway, I won't go into those because I found a place that carries cigars.

Correction: Rather, I should say, they make them!

The place is called Buena Vista Tobacco Factory. I am so glad I walked up to the door to ask to take a peek. I was greeted by one of the managers of the factory, who was... Cuban! Staffed with about 30 people, the place easily has a half dozen Cubans who are training Mexicans to roll cigars alongside them.

We hit it off almost immediately. He could tell I was a true amateur of a good smoke, and offered me one to try. I was blown away. The secret? Cuban seeds grown in a place in Ecuador that mimics the soil, climate and tobacco farms of embargoed island. The plus... I was smoking cigars that I could smoke back in the U.S!

Anyway, the next day I learned a ton about how cigars are rolled and ended up rolling 10 of my own. (A side note: a good average production rate is 80 to 100 cigars per day). It took me all day to roll those. It's not as easy as these guys make it look. Here's a video my lovely one put together this morning.