I had an awesome time. However:

The proliferation of counterfeit Cubans in Costa Rica is at ridiculous proportions.

In just *one* shop, which carried cigars in addition to t-shirts, mugs, glass-blown pot pipes and a rainbow display of flip-flops, I saw:

Glass-top Cohibas, the typical Esplendidos
Cedar-boxed Cohibas (Double Corona?)
Boxed R&J Churchills
Cohiba Robustos in 5-pack
R&J Robustos in 5-pack

Elsewhere I saw some Montes, and other assorted Robusto 5-packs.

Suffice it to say that the counterfeit signals were glaringly obvious. The Cohibas were just plain weird looking, the bands were all over the place, sometimes 1/2-inch off in alignment from stick to stick, the logo was done in a garishly sparkling gold foil, and the box markings all around were either just plain sick and wrong, or just plain badly printed.

Unfortunately I was traveling with some fellow gringoes who knew jack squat about cigars and they bought some Robustos before I could stop them. I decided to smoke one of the counterfeits just for fun, and I have to say it yielded all the pleasure of sucking on a damp roll of newspaper. The thing lit and it burned, but not very well. I was really drunk and didn't have anything better to do, so I attempted to smoke it, and fought with it almost 50% through before tossing it in the gutter.

Luckily for my friends, I brought a travel stash with me on the trip. So, it wasn't a total waste. What would've been a waste was dropping $130 on a box of dog rockets, which I'm sure plenty of the tourists do down there.

Sad.

LOL, at least you had sense enough to bring your own.

I thought they had a LCDH in Costa Rica, no?

Is the bar Key Largo--in San Jose-- still around?

I wouldn't know, because I flew into Liberia and stayed far away from San Jose. I have no idea if there is an LCDH there.

One cool thing is that we flew over Cuba on the way down there, so that was kind of cool. The sky was clear and I think I saw Havana, because I figured that was the only city that would look that big from the air...