"Yellow Band" Dominican 'Cohiba'???

My first Mexico cruise taken in 2003 we were warned about buying name brand cigars including Cubans and Cohibas. Prices were not to bad if htey were real but it was obviouse in some shops that the boxes were used over and over and if you wanted to buy a box they were alwasys opened. Prices were about $20 a stick.

My last Mexico cruise, January of 2010, the prices were $40 a stick for a yellow band Cohiba and the same with boxes. Nobody had a unopened box, not that I was going to buy one, but all the premium cigars I saw were way over priced from what I can buy here online. I am glad I take my own stash with me.

The warning we got on our fitst cruise was most all Cohibas we would see were fakes. Printers are cheap so reproducing a Cohiba band is easy and can turn a nice $2 cigar into a nice $20-$40 cigar just waiting for a tourist to buy. After looking closely ar packaging it even looked like some places were wrapping their own boxes as well as bands. Last years cruise I found most of teh Mexican made cigars to as much or more then name brands. Needless to say, I didn't buy any cigars on those cruises and I couldn't even find much in teh way of a humidor or cigar ashtrays ofered for sale.