Mangyan Project's coco goblet where everything made from coconut

The happy ladies of Shopping Arcade together with the equally cheerful men and women of the Mangyan Project, we are currently having a 50% OFF Sale on all Mangyan products from goblets, chopping boards,  hot pads and woven items to  the “cuddle eggs”. 

These products are all made by hand by the Mangyan community as part of their livelihood project started by Coco Beach Island Resort and partners. They make excellent gifts for friends and loved ones. Each hand made item  when sold can go a long way in helping the Mangyans lead better lives.

You can also visit one of the Mangyan Settlements, the specific village which is involved with the Mangyan Project in Puerto Galera. See how they do these unique, eco-friendly and popular items. The Activity Guys will take you there, just book ahead so they can arrange everything for you.

Ready for your snorkeling tour? These boatmen are!

Coco Beach offers excellent accommodations,    great food in its restaurants and plenty of activities  to do in and out of the resort. Like other resorts in the Philippines, we offer  snorkeling tours, beach hopping, fishing, sailing and dolphin watching to name a  few of them. But without  these hardworking men who help us  in making these activities possible, keeping the guests happy and with a whole bunch of wonderful memories  would be next to impossible.

The men we are talking about  are  the boatmen  who  are always  there  to bring you  to all these  beautiful places. With their boats  stationed at the beachfront,  these boatmen  make sure that every trip is safe  and fun  for everybody.

Jimmy points out the best spots for snorkeling

The boatmen are not  employed by Coco Beach  but they are our partners in promoting the different activities the resort offers. As partners we work together to give the best service there is to our guests. Not only will they bring you to all the beaches in Puerto Galera,  the boatmen will also cook  for you on picnics  and act as your guide. They can tell you the best snorkeling places and secrets of the coves.

In Filipino, ATBP stands for At Iba Pa which roughly translates to etcetera. Thus, at ATBP is where we have some interesting news of anything and everything related to the Philippines.

Google's Philippine Independence Day tribute 2010

This year’s Philippines Independence Day tribute by one of the best internet search - Google. This was posted on Google Philippines homepage on June 12, 2010.

Candice Adea. This photo wins her a gold for us! (Photo Source)

Candice Adea has bagged two titles in the past month. First, she has won the Silver Award in the Senior Women’s Division of the  USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. This prestigious competition is known as the Olympics of ballet. The 24-year-old Candice’s second award is from being the very first Filipina to win a title in this Jackson competition.

Eros during the championship (Photo Source)

On another competition, 17 year old Eros Baluyot wins the Gold Medal in the recent 2010 World Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Championship held in Long Beach, California, USA. He fought in the White Belt Adult Division and despite of his strong opponent, the huge maddening crowd, the young Eros took the gold.

When the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary calls for help, Coco Divers are always willing to help. This time it was a clean-up dive in Sabang area where all the dive shops make the most of their diving.

The time was set to 2 PM on June 29 where we all should meet on the new pier for a short briefing.

Coco Divers came with 10 divers. From left to right: Jesper, Marjorie, Adrian, Wiljun, Doc. Ariel, Darwin, Stefan, Martin and Rex. Thomas is not in the picture because he was behind the camera.

Coco Divers got a 70 meter wide area in front of Tamarind Restaurant where they started at 15 meters depth and then went shallower during their 45 minutes dive.

Adrian in the front and Wiljun together with Marjorie in the search for more debris’s.

But everyone was surprised to find less debris than expected, hopefully an indication that the hard work is paying off. You can really see that the guides and instructors clean up every time they are diving in the area and find some debris.

The most common items found during the clean-up dive were bottles and cans but also engine parts and fishing lines were among the collected items.

The more strange items picked up were some men’s underwear and a women’s bikini…Maybe they didn’t missed them when they came out of the water???

Over 60 divers helped out on the Clean-up dive and are gathered behind all the garbage they found.

After the dive there was a short debriefing for all the divers and volunteers before the dump truck came to pick up all the garbage.

The next International Clean-up Day will be on September 25, so if you want to give the underwater world a hand…join us on that day. The Clean-up dive is of course for FREE! We will also arrange a Beach Clean-up. Sign up now and you could get your accommodation for FREE!