Today we traveled by from Grenada to Esteli. It took a few hours by bus and our first stop was the Victor Sinclair farm in San Isidro for lunch that was held in their curing barns. The bus ride was long (especially after last night’s party). Lunch was amazing- the roasted pork cannot be beat. We ate under rafters of curing tobacco leaves and then we boarded busses by tour group for our first farm/factory tour. My group, Group 5, went to Padron.
Padron was very neat to see. We saw all aspects of their vertically integrated process: farm, pilons, leaf grading/sorting/de-veining, rolling and banding. Jorge Padron and his family (wife, son, nephew, and cousin) lead the tour through their various buildings/farms. They own 300+ acres of farmland in the Esteli area.
From there, we went to our hotels and reconvened at JC Newman’s Penske factory for dinner. In checking into our rooms at Hotel Don Vito, I realized that Esteli has redefined 3rd World for me. The shower was heated by some electrical contraption that would make even a novice nervous. The hotel lost power shortly after arriving. And Esteli was very, ristic. Fuck it, this is an adventure so if I miss a shower, I’ll survive but I have immense respect for those manufacturers that came to Esteli, like drew estate, Perdomo and My Father back in the 90’s and early 2000’s because I heard at dinner (from Steve Saka) that Esteli has really modernized since then.
