Sunday, November 18 2007
By Gary Korb
First allow me to apologize for not being able to follow up over the past several days from Esteli as mentioned in my previous message. When I finally got to the hotel I couldn't get a strong enough Wi-Fi signal on my laptop, and to make matters worse, the
plug on the hotel's wall cable connection was busted. Believe me, this is no surprise in a place like Esteli.
However, Esteli's natural beauty, and the hospitality we were shown by people like Nestor Plasencia, Nick Perdomo, Gilberto Oliva, and Victor Calvo (of Tabacalera Tambor), and Toni Borhani, among the many other wonderful people we met there, more than make up for its lack comfortable hotel accommodations.
During my excursion I got to see the entire cigar-making process, and more, including some processes which many of you may not be aware. According to Nick Perdomo, who gave us a personal tour of his facility, there are 3,100 stages the tobacco goes through to completion of the cigar. Hard to fathom, but when you see it, you understand what he's talking about.
Due to the abbreviated workweek, plus the fact that I had so much work, email, etc., to catch up on today, I regret that I can't get into too much detail in this post, but I wanted to at least post something. I assure you that in the weeks to come I will reveal in prose and video all of my experiences last week. I kept an audio journal that needs to be reviewed, plus I have almost four hours of video to edit.
Thanks for checking in and please stay tuned. I've got some real goodies for you. In the meantime, I'll try to get some of the other columns on this site updated.
