I'm glad you got it working! Thanks for posting your config files, it's interesting to read other examples. I like how you use include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;, I just got in the habit of putting everything in the config file, perhaps I'll change someday.
I noticed that you use Varnish as a caching server. Does that seem to reduce a lot of load from Ngnix. In my configuration I use Ngnix without any PCP to serve out static files and then I allow Apache to do everything else. Do you think throwing Varnish into the mix would make it even more efficient?
Craig