Birdie in the Humidor

It was close, but there were more than enough cigars when golfers competed at the Sandpiper golf course, just a tiara or two’s toss from the Ritz-Carlton Bacara.

Afterwards competitors adjourned to the tony hostelry’s Cohiba Lounge, which opened last August. There they not only partook of the pricey Cuban tobacco, they quaffed Johnny Walker blue label whiskey with the Scottish company’s Paul Jones pouring interesting cocktail creations. All the while, Cohiba’s ambassador Sean Williams, who flew in from Atlanta, Georgia, for the occasion, handed out the stogies – some of which sell for $80 each. Local guitarist Gilberto González entertained at the end of a perfect California day.

It reminded me of when I stayed with the late president Fidel Castro on his private island Cayo Piedras in the early ‘90s when sailing with Prince Johannes von Thurn und Taxis.

I was able to buy boxes of 25 cigars for a mere $6 box in the center of Havana, which I handed out to friends in Manhattan given I don’t smoke.

I had never been so popular!