The Cigar Factory at La Pintada

     When we visited Panama a year ago, my husband was very interested in seeing the cigar factory we had read about online. It is located in a town called La Pintada, and we drove up there one afternoon, thinking that we could find it by asking one of the locals. It was around 3:00 p.m. when we got to the town, so we figured we had enough time to catch a glimpse or two of the factory in operation. We asked a guy on the street, and he gave us directions. As we drove up the little semi-paved road, we were just certain we had done something wrong, because we only saw a little white building-not nearly big enough to be a factory.

Cigar Factory

Factory Store

Lo and behold, we had found it, in spite of our gringo predisposed idea of how a factory should look. We parked, and went inside, where a lady was attending the retail part of the establishment. She informed us that the workers-both of them-had already gone home for the day, but we were welcome to tour the factory. There was an open door to our right, and we proceeded to take the self-guided tour of the factory, which I am going to treat you to now. 

Workers' tables

Yep, That's the tour, folks. Please save your questions until the end. The guys sit at those desk/tables, hand roll cigars all day, and knock off whenever they feel like they have reached their quota. After they roll them, sometimes they box and/or package them.

Now, if that is not quaint, I don't know what is. By the time we toured their workplace that day, they were already on the porch at home with a cold beer. There are two morals to this story. 1.) Not everything is as seem, grasshopper. We really need to break out of our culture-snobbery shells and realize that not everyone does things the "American" way. This little factory functions just fine, and 2.) If you lean back in your chair at 2:45 and say, "Well, I have done my best, honestly earned a few bucks today, I believe I'm gonna pick it up again tomorrow," the world is not going to come to a screeching halt. The economy won't collapse, and nobody is going to die. 

    Frankly, I love the idea that they don't have to work grueling twelve-hour sweat shop hours in this culture. Many of us stayed on the American hamster wheel long enough to have plantar fasciitis and bad backs. Take a lesson from Panama, folks. Go home early and relax. 

La Pintada, Panama