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Hey all! I've been putting off making this post but you all have given me so much in my time on the forum that I knew I needed to give back in my small, but hopefully special for somebody, way. Background: I've been smoking cigars for about 10 years now and been getting much more into cubans in the last 4years or so. I watched a few docs and saw a few different pictures of Cuba and knew that I needed to go. When I took a new job with an unlimited and flexible vacation policy, I knew how I was going to take advantage of it. So I convinced my wonderful wife to do a 10 day trip, 5 days in Varadero with only drinking and beach for the wife and then Vinales for 2.5 days and Havana for 2.5 days for me. Without further ado, let's dive in. Varadero (days 1-5): We stayed at the melia las americas. My wife and I went to an adults only resort for our honeymoon 3 years back and swore that we'd only go to them from that point forward. The hotel was nice enough, food was miserable but all-inclusive is definitely going to do that. Got to play a round of golf at the Vardero golf club (rental clubs were atrocious but it was only $30 for the cart rental). Course was nice enough and it was great to get off the resort for awhile. The beach was great and on day 3 we walked down to the LCDH in plaza las americas. Overall the selection and service was acceptable but not astounding. The #1 thing I found there was a box of sir winnies which I immediately bought. I also purchased about 3lbs of coffee as they had a massive selection. Their singles selection was lackluster and the staff actually screwed me on the purchase (didn't feel like calling them out over $5) of about 7 singles. Our last night there we went to the Hotel Xanadu (An estate that the DuPont family had owned) and went up to the top floor. The entire top floor is windows and so the sunset was astounding. There was also live music although the drinks were more expensive (5$). On day 5 we got a very, very early cab to the viazul station where purchasing a ticket was very easy. Pictures below: Because of the length of my write-ups for Vinales and Havana, I've moved those sections to new posts.

At the Centro Cultural Polo Montañez - Viñales : So it was evening and we moved over to take in the show. Surprise, our table was taken by a very large Evander Holyfield look-alike, one eye half closed and hands as large as a shovel. Cristal courage made me brave and I asked him WTF he was doing at my table. He meekly drawled out something like : Me was jus’ doin’ som takin’ care of youse table, my man, no worries – so I invited him to join us and have some beers with/on us, which he kindly agreed to. Believing he was a regional foreigner ( Haitian ?? ) I asked Jorge WTF a language the big guy was babbling. Well, Jorge explained that the guy was a local Piñareño guy and they were justly known and famous for being too dumb to speak. According to a Havana legend only 5% of the Piñareños are smart enough to think … Well, I kept that piece of information to myself so as to not offend Mr Holyfield who looked like a true Piñareño specimen of the 95% sort and we became friends. Especially tight friends after he arranged for a few of his girl-friends to keep us company at the table so as to keep all the other girl-friends from bothering us. Worked out peaches & cream. For text and Pictures see : http://flyingcigar.de/startseite/vinales-fun-with-frank/