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Nicaraguan Cigar Festival 2017

Details were recently released on the Nicaraguan Cigar Festival 2017, more accurately named, Puro Sabor Nicaragua 2017. This is the 6th year for the Festival and is sponsored by a host of cigar companies, including Drew Estate, Joya de Nicaragua, My Father Cigars, Oliva Cigar Company, and Padron Cigars. The Nicaraguan Cigar Festival takes place January 16th-21st, 2017.

This year, the event is expanded from 3 days and to six. The cost for the Festival is $1,700 per person for a single room and $1,550 per person for a double room. Your ticket includes:

  • Transfer from airport to hotel and back
  • Hotel room and transportation to all Festival activities
  • Authentic Nicaraguan cuisine
  • Entertainment
  • Drinks
  • Premium cigars!

You must be over 18 years old to attend. The deadline for registration is December 19th, 2016. This looks like a friggin’ awesome event. Smokey and I keep talking about going. Perhaps 2017 will be the year. . .

Here’s Intel from the Puro Sabor website:

DAY 1

Event organizers will be waiting for you in the VIP area of Managua’s Augusto C. Sandino International Airport. They will take you from the airport to the city of Granada. Once checked in the hotel and registered with the festival, you will have some free time to explore the cities of Granada. It is quite safe to move around this city both on foot and by bicycle.

DAY 2

GRANADA – TOURISM, HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE

After breakfast, you will enjoy the architectural beauty of Granada. It is an enchanting city know as the “Paris of the Americas” and named as World Heritage Site by UNESCO. You will also take a trip around the islets, which resulted form the last recorded eruption of Mombacho volcano in 1570. There are more than 360 islets filled with magic, vegetation and fauna that seem to float in the Great Lake Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua). Then you will be taken to Mombacho Volcano Nature Reserve, where you will discover natural beauty among the clouds. You can practice different activities on this volcano such as hiking, visiting a coffee farm or zip-lining in a canopy tour.

After lunch, there are a number of different options for the rest of the day. The first one is to visit the handicraft market in the city of Masaya to buy souvenirs of our beloved Nicaragua and then look around the Santiago volcano, which is currently very active. From the top of the volcano it is possible to see the lava lake in the crater below, which is a spectacle that can only be viewed in two other places in the world. The other option is to remain in Granada, take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage and visit the Mombacho Cigar Factory.

At night you have a date at La Pólvora Fortress, one of the oldest and best preserved buildings in the city. Built in 1748, it is an important part of Granada’s colonial history, having been used to store gunpowder that was taken on to the fortress at El Castillo on the San Juan River, which was the main point of defense against pirates. During this time, we will also take the opportunity to register friends who arrived later and are joining the festival at this point.

DAY 3

FROM GRANADA TO ESTELÍ

We will leave for the city of Estelí after breakfast. The trip takes approximately two and half hours, but there will a be a rest stop to stretch your legs and, of course, smoke a cigar. When we arrive at midday, lunch will be taken with the Plasencia family, who will present the first cigar consisting of 100% organic tobacco leaves.

In the afternoon, you will visit different cigar factories in Estelí. At night, the venue for the festival’s inauguration and dinner will be at Joya de Nicaragua. This was the first 100% Nicaraguan cigar factory established in the country that manufactures handmade premium cigars.

(Culture, history, art and flavors: pairings of Tobacco and Rum and an equestrian show).

Within the first hour, we will travel to Chichigalpa, the cradle town for the best Nicaraguan rum and world class brand, Flor de Caña. Later on during the day we will visit farm El Rosario, which offers a suitable environment to enjoy a paring of tobacco and Centenario Rum with 18 year of ageing and we will be delighted with an equestrian Spanish show.

To close the day with a perfect final, we will head to our venue hotel to experience what we have entitled “Puro Humo”, the best tasting night ever.

DAY 4

FACTORY VISITS

The city’s main cigar factories will open their doors for you. You will have the chance to meet the owners, who will personally show you around and tell you everything you need to know about each of the processes involved in manufacturing the main brands. And of course you will have the opportunity to try those brands and become quite an expert. You will have lunch at the La Estrella plantation, which belong to the García family, whose members have channeled all of their efforts and passion into tobacco and build one of the industry’s mos recognized companies: My Father Cigars.

After lunch, you will enjoy the pairing of the most delicious coffee produced in our country and -of course- tobacco. This is a good opportunity to mix two of the preferred tastes of many palates. There will also be a panel discussion in which experts will share thier impressions of the industry and a press conference during which an important announcement will be made. At the end of the afternoon, you will have a couple of hours to rest and recharge your batteries before a traditional dinner at night accompanied by music and dance with colorful national folk costumes.

DAY 5

PLANTATION VISITS

Your activities will continue with a tour of plantations to see how the growth and production of tobacco plants takes place in harmony with the environment. Lunch will be served in one of tobacco curing barns belonging to the Padrón family where you will enjoy a gastronomic festival dedicated to maize, the basic ingredient of the main dishes in Nicaragua’s Pacific, central and northern regions.

The factory visits will end in the afternoon, but there is still more to celebrate. We have reserved the last night for an extraordinary gala dinner to bring the festival to a close. This event, held in the Tabacalera Oliva Factory, will also include the traditional charity auction in benefit of social projects in the city of Estelí.

DAY 6

The transportation back to Managua leaves at your convenience or according to your return flight itinerary. Departures to the capital city will start at 9:00.

Learn more about the Nicaraguan Cigar Festival HERE.

c.gar

c.gar loves all things cigar-related. He typically falls in love with cigars that are discontinued shortly thereafter. His first cigar was a Swisher Sweet with a wood tip. Sadly, these are still in production.

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