Cuban cigar roller twists it toward a fourth Guinness record

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

HAVANA (AFP) — Jose Castelar began rolling cigars when he was five. Now, at 64, the Cuban expert hopes to finish rolling a 20-meter (65-foot) stogie by Wednesday to garner his fourth world record from the Guinness Book.

"I can't tell you exactly how far I'll get, but my goal is to beat my former record of 20.41 meters (66.9 feet)," Castelar, knicknamed "Cueto," told AFP on Sunday.

He rolls his mega-cigar out of premium tobacco leaves, making a long, slender tube about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) across. He works non-stop, eight hours a day since he began his record-seeking attempt on Saturday.

Nothing distracts him, not even the hustle and bustle of the 28th International Tourism Fairground that is going up near his workplace at the colonial fortress of San...