Perdomo Factory Tour (January 12-15, 2014)

First, a little background; in early August, 2013 we met my family at a restaurant near Clinton, SC. We were there to celebrate my upcoming birthday and my sisters birthdays. I didn't expect any presents because my actual birthday was several days later. But, my wife handed me a bag and said "Happy Birthday"! I looked in and pulled out a packet of papers that had the words "Perdomo Factory Tour, 2014" on it. I asked "what's this?". She said in January I was going to Nicaragua on the Perdomo Factory Tour! I was floored! She went on to say the hotel in Miami was set up, a rental car for the afternoon, and the hotel for the night before the tour and the night after the tour. This was amazing! She had done all this without any knowledge of mine. She had contacted Perdomo and set everything up. Of course, she had a lot of help from Juan Liranzo, the Operations Manager at Perdomo Cigars. He gave her all the info on the tour and put her in touch with the travel agency in charge of the tour. I was speechless but I did manage a hearty thank you!

Fast forward to January 11th. I loaded my carry-ons and headed to the Columbia airport, traveled through Atlanta and on to Miami. I landed before noon and grabbed my reserved rental car and headed to Little Havana Cigar Factory on 8th Street.

I met Herberto Leon and Ibis Luis there and stayed a couple hours.

Herbeto Leon

Ibis Luis

Here are some shots of the shop.

From here I grabbed some authentic Cuban food across the street then traveled over to Cuban Crafters.

One of the owners

After a couple hours I headed back to the airport to return the rental car and check into the hotel which was located inside the airport. Pretty convenient. The next morning I went to my gate and waited for my flight to Managua. While there some of the others in our group arrived including Nick Perdomo!

I also met Robert Levin, President of Ashton Cigars. They were on their way to the My Father Factory in Esteli.

Our flight was on time.

We learned that 3 of our group were being put on the flight after ours. So, once we landed we waited for them by having lunch at a local resort. More on that on the video of my trip. The videos show the entire tour while in Nicaragua. To see the videos go to the links; Part 1 and Part 2.

This was an amazing birthday present from my wife. Even now I almost can't believe she did this for me. I had a great time and highly recommend this tour for any cigar lover.

Thank you Connie!!!