Picture shows happy customers enjoying the bean bag  lounge  tables at Cocomangas Shooter Bar , Boracay, with an Illusion Shaker , and San Miguel Beer fueling the good times.

Cocomangas Shooter Bar is famous in Boracay for potent cocktails , delicious pizza, a list of 15 different shooters, shakers , ice cold beers ,buckets,  and it’s laid back atmosphere.Come early during Cocomangas daily  happy hour,7:30pm -9:30pm, to get one of the laid back lounge tables where you can take off your shoes and  sit on over sized bean bag cushions . Cocomangas has 18 laid back  tables , with some  tables  sitting up to 15 pax, while other tables  are good for 4 pax only .Make sure to come early to get one of these popular tables.

After you eat some pizza and drink some booze,  you’re than ready to move the cushions and convert your laid back bean bag table into a high energy private dance area where you can  shake your booty  with your mates.I never get tired of watching all the   customers dancing at the  different tables ,or on  the dance floor , all screaming, and generally having a blast .It’s quite the sight .

Come visit us and shake your booty in one of Cocomangas laid back tables any night of  the year.

Yours truly,

John Munro

Picture shows Boracay’s Main Road with a traffic jam at the entrance of D’ mall,  during rush hour. Photo taken at 3pm Dec ., 9, 08.

Can you believe it , Boracay went from no cars, and no roads  in 86, to traffic jams in 2008 .Boracay is loaded with cars,trucks,tricycles,golf carts,dump trucks,cargo trucks, and motorcycles.(Total number of registered motor vehicles on Boracay  in 2007 was 1,861, up from 553 vehicles in 2004, thats a 300% increase in 3 years)As tourism booms, vehicles  boom,  as they are needed to transport goods, services, and tourists  around the island. Boracay’s Main Road is just 2 lanes wide ,one lane in each direction , so when a tricycle stops to drop off passengers , all traffic behind is forced to stop causing the traffic jams.

Boracay is quickly turning into a big city with a population of between 30,000 to 40,000, depending on  how many tourists are on the island at one time.With  the local population growing quickly and with tourism growing even faster ,  expect Boracay’s main road to be clogged with heavy traffic over the next few years.How many more vehicles can Boracay sustain ??Only time will tell.

I heard of a plan to build another road up the middle of the island and to  make the existing 2 lane road, a  one way . This would work to keep the traffic flowing and i hope the Public Works and Highways is planning  this important project . The perfect place for the new road would be to start it at the lake near D’ Mall, in front of the Lake-town Restaurant, and run it past the Bloomfield School and have the road join the Main road near the wet lands where the Crown Regency is building that mega condo project. I hope this new road becomes a reality as we need to plan for the future now and not delay.

I write these blogs to inform old  friends and other  travellers from  around the world,  which were here years ago , what to expect on their return trip to paradise because i know everyone wants to come back to Boracay at some point .

Hope to  see you soon .

Yours Truly,

John Munro

Have fun sharing a bucket at Cocomangas Shooter Bar , Boracay.

When you holiday in Boracay and you feel like having a good party time with friends , drop by Cocomangas Shooter Bar and order the biggest drink on the menu , the  bucket .There are 3 buckets on the menu , the Rum-bull Bucket, Greg’s Matador(brandy)Bucket, and the Gin and Juice Bucket, with each bucket containing a lapad(mickey) of alcohol. A lapad holds 12.5 ounces of booze .

The most popular Cocomangas bucket is the Rum-bull Bucket. Imagine 12.5 shots of rum , a bottle of red-bull , and topped off with coke , served in a bucket with 8 straws for the crazy low price of P220.00  ($4.28). Where else in the world can you drink so much booze in a nightclub for that kind of low price .In Canada ,that would cost 5 bucks per  shot of Rum or $62.50 a bucket which translates into  P2,687.50 peso.Wow, what a huge price difference.No wonder why Philippine tourism is booming, cheap holiday fun.

Enjoy your party night with us here at Cocomangas Shooter Bar any night of the year .

Yours Truly,

John Munro

Photo at top shows Eco-friendly Christmas tree at Balabag Plaza, Boracay , made from recycled materials like plastic bags ,noodle cups , and broken glass. See the tree  glow in above photo .

This past weekend I witnessed  the councilors from Barangay Balabag , under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Sacapano ,build a beautiful Christmas tree made from recycled material . Glenn is in charge  of Boracay’s Material Recovery Facility(MRF) , where all of Boracay’s  garbage gets  dumped and disposed of everyday .He and his wife , the Honourable Baragay Captain Lilibeth ,came up with this clever idea of  showing the islanders and tourists what can be built from using garbage/waste from the Island, a stunning Christmas tree.

The tree is made of hundreds of different colored plastic bags . The tree decorations are  noodle cups with smashed   glass  glued to the outside of the cups giving them a sparkly finish. The star decorations are old pieces of Styrofoam with the crushed glass  glued on the sides so they sparkle at night.The tree is really beautiful at night with the  lights  turned on  as  the entire tree glows through all those used plastic bags.

Well done Lilibeth and Glenn and all the councillors for putting up a Christmas tree the whole community can be proud of and for teaching all of us how  to recycle.

Yours Truly,

John Munro

Picture shows walking trail/path along Boracay’s Islands White Beach.

One of Boracay’s best attributes is the beach walk/trail which runs along the entire White Beach from station 1 to station 3. This sandy trail, open to foot and bicycle traffic only, is unique to Boracay and makes the island a special destination.I’ve travelled to many other beach island destinations around Asia and none have  a beach walk that compares to Boracay’s.Most of the other Asian Islands i’ve visited had a busy road which you had to cross before making it to the beach (Kuta in Bali,and Phuket’s Patong Beach)and some don’t have a road or trail at all ,but just resorts built right up to the beach(Chewang Beach,Koh Samui Island,Thailand).

It’s fun to stroll along Boracay’s beach trail anytime of the day as most of the trail is shaded by the coconut trees. When walking the beach trail you’ll see so many different resorts,bars, restaurants,tattoo parlors,salons,sari sari stores, clothing shops , and D’Mall. Boracay is famous world wide so i like walking the beach trail to look at all the beautiful people visiting the island.

People often ask me if I’m ever bored living on Boracay . I say ,I’ve never been bored here  , not  even one minute .Between family , work , and play, I have no time to be bored.Like this morning i went biking with my son along the beach trail and enjoyed the sights and ran into a few friends along the way .I’m really grateful the beach walk/trail has remained the same over the past 20 years, except of course lots of different businesses have been built up along side the trail .But the trail is still sand , still simple, charming ,and really is a major tourist attraction here on Boracay Island in the beautiful country of the  Philippines.Come check it out for yourself.

Yours Truly,

John Munro

Picture’s taken on December 5 ,08 , shows litter/garbage,broken boats,old tires, all over the Bulabog Beach ,Boracay Island, and that’s why Boracay needs a Beach Cleaning Team.

There’s nothing worst than travelling around the world to visit the number 1 beach  in the Philippines and possibly on the planet, White Beach of Boracay Island , to find garbage littered  over the pristine white sand.The beaches surrounding Boracay are so beautiful it takes your breath away , and White Beach is the gem of all gems but with all the tourism, and with the local population exploding, the beaches are being neglected and becoming dirty with litter, broken boats , and natural debris.White beach isn’t too badly littered with garbage but definitely Bulabog Beach  needs a serious clean up(check out photo above taken December 5,th, 08) and i think  the responsibility must fall not only on the residents but also on the shoulders of the local government .

I propose on this blog the local government set up a beach cleaning team of say 10 to 20 people .The only responibility of this group  is to clean up litter/garbage from  all 32 Boracay beaches surrounding the island , everyday of the year .  The overheads/expenses  of this beach cleaning team could be paid for by using a small  percentage of the 50 peso enviromental fee which every tourist pays before entering the island.This would create jobs , keep the island clean ,show the world that we do care about the environment on Boracay , and most importantly keep all the 32 beaches surrounding Boracay clean and pristine like a true  paradise  should look.

What a great advertisement for the island . Tourists would see this beach cleaning team everyday and would leave the island with good thoughts telling other travellers  Boracay has really got their act together , it’s so clean and still such a beautiful place . The good word of mouth would spread quickly and more and more tourists would visit Boracay.More tourists, more environmental fee’s, more taxes,more jobs .

On the other hand if we do nothing ,then there’s nothing worst than paying the 50 peso environmental fee at the jetty port before you arrive on the island, just to see the beaches of Boracay being neglected. So what is the tourist paying 50 peso for if we can’t even keep our beaches clean and tidy and pristine.I figure White Beach , and all surrounding beaches,are worth protecting at all costs as it’s  the biggest reason Boracay is getting half a million tourists a year .I figure the cleaning team would cost 1 to 2  million peso a year in salary,food , and uniforms . Worth every peso as  Boracay’s reputation as a beautiful paradise island would be maintained up to world standards.

These are just my thoughts on how to attract more visitors to Boracay while maintaining the beauty of the Island .

Yours Truly,

John Munro

Photo shows Cocomangas staff helping a visitor  find her name on the famous wall of fame at Cocomangas Shooter Bar  for drinking the shot challenge , “Still Standing After 15…”.

When you order and drink the infamous “Still Standing After 15…” at Cocomangas Shooter Bar in Boracay,  you win a free t-shirt for your effort, you score a number for your country, and you get your name engraved on a brass plaque,   to forever  hang at the wall of fame inside the bar .Tourists and locals take pride in having their names hanging on the wall of fame at Cocomangas Shooter Bar . I witness every night returning customers locate their brass name plates ,smile ,  and then show them off to  their friends and families.

There is no time limit for drinking the 15 shots . But the  average time of consumption is between 15 to 30 minutes. Some have taken hours to finish while others prefer the quick method and drink the 15 in under a minute .I’ve seen it done in 10 seconds but the guy was spilling so much down his shirt I could not  count it as the fastest time ever.The fastest time for 15 shots without spilling goes to Rexie Rabaca with a time of 20 seconds, and his drinking record can be viewed at YouTube under the speed challenge for Sept 08 .But i don’t like to keep records so this is all just unofficial fun talk.

But thousands have attempted the “Still Standing After 15…”  drinking challenge here at Cocomangas . If you’re planning to make it into the bar , or you’ve been here before, you’ll surely notice the wall of fame surrounding the entire bar. Every drinker has a name plate ever since that 1st set  of 15 shots was poured way back on Dec., 24,th 1990, so there is a lot of proud people  in the world. I say do it for your country , and your pride.15 shots a must on your next holiday to Boracay…

Yours Truly,

John Munro

Photo shows Cocomangas Shooter Bar, which is  celebrating it’s 22nd  year anniversary this coming  Dec.,5,09.

Holy how time flies. It’s hard to believe that 22 years ago I opened a small warm up bar,(to get the early crowd going  before they transferred to the Beachcomber Disco which was  just down the road)  on Boracay, called Cocomangas Shooter Bar ,with billiard tables ,  and   rock and roll  music. The likes of Dire Straits, U2,Billy Idol, Roxy Music,and  Micheal Jackson, were rocking the house down .Our big drink back in the 80’s was the frozen margarita , which we served 2 for 1 every night from 7:30pm til 9:30pm. 22 years later our happy hour still starts at 7:30 and includes all local drinks and cocktails 2 for 1, and still draws a crowd.

As time passed over the years , Cocomangas evolved from the rock and roll, billiard theme to the hip hop /house dance theme. During holy week about 7 years ago, when thousands of hardcore party people travel to Boracay as school is out for the summer, the party kids jumped on top of the 3 billiard tables and danced the night away . The next day I threw the billiard tables away as they got destroyed by the party animals the night before , and built instead a  dancing stage so the party people could come back again the next night to dance without destroying any furniture . It worked and today that same stage is the focal point of Cocomangas Shooter Bar, as the DJ’ s spin hip hop / house music.

I’m very grateful for the patronage over the years by so many different people from around the world and from the locals of Boracay for continuing to support Cocomangas Shooter Bar.Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat.  A business can’t reach 22 years without the support of so many customers. Over the years  Cocomangas has served millions from every corner of the world and for that we are very proud of our accomplishment of reaching 22 years old.

So if your on the island of Boracay this Dec.,5, 09, drop by Cocomangas as San Miguel Beer presents the 22nd anniversary party where we will have a major celebration of drinking , dancing, and happiness.

Yours truly,

John Munro

Photo shows the massive Illusion shaker at the Cocomangas Shooter bar , Boracay.

Boracay Island ,in the Philippines, is one of the best  party island’s in Asia ,especially during the summer months of April and May. There is a variety of  bar’s on Boracay that will satisfy every taste from around the world. Start your party night off at station 3 and bar hop north to station 1,  making your last stop at the infamous Cocomangas Shooter Bar .By the way,if you’re on the island this Friday Dec.,5,08, drop by Cocomangas as we’re going celebrate 21 years of good times on Boracay .Happy 21 st Anniversary Cocomangas.

Anyway,once at Cocomangas try the most  massive drink on the menu , the  Illusion Shaker .With 5 shots of booze in every shaker ,  you’ll be happy and drunk by the time the bar closes at 3am. The Illusion gets it ’s name because it  tastes like juice  but after a couple of shakers your drunk , so it’s kind of an illusion drinking juice but getting smashed.The first Illusion Shaker ordered will cost P295.00($6.00), but you get to keep the shaker , and refills cost P195.00($4.00). Great for big groups,friends, or hardcore  party people .Try all the shakers(16 in total) on the menu like Scott’s Shit , Sex On The Beach, Javas Classic, or the Kamikaze shaker.All shakers are delicious and strong to get you wasted and keep you dancing .For your information , the most popular shaker here at Cocomangas Shooter Bar is the vodka based Illusion Shaker.

Enjoy Cocomangas any night of the year.

Yours Truly,

John Munro

Cocomangas bar-tender pouring the infamous “Still Standing After 15…”.Do it for your country.

The shooter challenge , “Still Standing After 15…”,has been a huge success story here at Cocomangas Shooter Bar on Boracay Island in the beautiful country of the Philippines.The infamous list of 15 shots ,  drank by thousands of holiday makers and locals, has helped to put  Cocomangas on the map  of things to do in Boracay .The scoreboard  hanging on the bar wall has  over 120 countries represented, as you score 1 number for your country for  every 15 shots ordered.It all started way back in 1990.Here’s how it went down:

The first bar drinking gimmick here at Cocomangas Shooter Bar ,  was who can drink  thirteen lime margarita’s . Thirteen lime margarita’s is a nasty mix of thirteen shots of Jose Cuervo Tequilla  , plus six and one half shots of Grand Marnier liquor, totalling almost twenty shots of booze. There was no time limit for the thirteen Margarita’s, but eventually a friend of mine  came into the bar and drank them in forty -five  seconds. His face turned all red , than he headed towards the toilet and unloaded  the works down the drain . Kind of a waste .

On another occasion ,two American pilots from Clark Air Base  drank the thirteen Margarita’s and both started checking the pulse of the other as both their faces went completely red , and sweat started running down their foreheads. So i decided after watching them check their pulse that twenty shots was to much and i cancelled the Margarita challenge, and started to think of another slightly easier drinking challenge.

It was December 24Th , Christmas Eve  1990  , when the “Still Standing After 15…” was first poured and created. I had a dear friend from Canada, Lawrence, and a brother- in- law ,Dean, who were  visiting Boracay , and the three of us put together what is now the infamous list of 15 different shots. We used some famous shots from bar-tending books and we made up some original shots but mostly we based the shots on which alcohol  was available on the island at that time because  back in the 90’s suppliers on Boracay were limited.

The three of us took each shot on that Christmas Eve to sample the results of drinking 15 shots . Our experiment worked well and we all enjoyed that night immensely and at the end , we  were all still standing.Our three names were the first to  hang on the bar’s  wall of fame for the  year1990 .We all stood proud as the scoreboard read Canada 3 and the rest of the world zero. But our lead did not last long.Now,2008, the scoreboard reads : the Philippines having a huge lead as number 1 , followed by Korea, and rounding out the top 3, the USA.

We named the 1st shot on the list the Canadian Prairie Fire, since we were all Canadian , and wanted to start this drinking challenge off with a bang , Tequila and Tabasco sauce .

The 2nd shot, the Mexican flag,  has the red(grenadine), green (cream de menthe), and white(clear tequila)which  make up the colors of the Mexican   Flag.The sweet grenadine washes away the Tabasco from shot 1.

Shot number 3 is the most famous of all shots around the world , the B-52, and had to be on the list .

Shot number 4 , the B-53 , is more nasty than the B-52 , where we replaced the Bailey’s with Sambuca.No one said this challenge was going to be easy.

Shot 5  , the Screaming Green Lizard , is named after all the lizards crawling along the walls of Boracay , it contains Kahlua , Baileys, and Creme de Menthe.Easy and sweet.

Shot 6 , the Test Tube Baby ,  is a mix of Vodka , and Amaretto, and when the drop of milk enters the shot it looks like a babies fetus . A little grouse looking but all part of the challenge.

Shot 7 , the Screaming Orgasm , is on the  list as we were always hopeful that after 15 shots we would enjoy a screaming orgasm.Wishful thinking.

Shot 8 , Renzo’s Revenge , named after my friend Lawrence , mentioned earlier in this story  . It’s actually a kamikazee shot but renamed for my buddy.

Shot 9, Cocomangas After Eight , is one nasty shot where I mixed Gin with Jim Beam. If you can get passed this one without spewing you’re well on your way.This shot replaced a sweet shot on the original list as customers complained the 15 was to sweet and  easy . I get no more complaints .

Shot 10 , Scotch Macmillan , named after my nephew Scotty Mac. It’s a mix of Kahlua , Bailey’s , and more Tequilla.Sweet but with a tequilla kick.

Shot 11, Chico’s Surprise, is named after my son who now works and manages the bar . How time flies.It’s another sweet shot with Creme de Cacao,Galliano, and Bailey’s.Now you starting to feel a buzz.

Shot 12 , Javas Jersey’s, is named after the Cocomangas  clothing line, it’s another disgusting shot of tequila and green de menthe ,some say it tastes like mouth wash.

Shot 13,Kaya’s Star Queen,named after my daughter, is a nasty strong mix of Jim Beam and local WhiteCastle Whiskey .This is another shot which replaced a sweet shot from the original list of 15 .Hold it down as just two more to go…

Shot 14,SS Bangkero, named after my buddy Welbic’s boat. It’s the easiest shot on the list , Bailey’s,Malibu, Vodka.

Shot 15 , Have A Go, named for my friend Chris’s speed boat, we decided to end the challenge with a straight Tequilla shot . Now hold it all down and be standing and you win a famous “STILL STANDING AFTER 15 ” t-shirt  , and you get your named engraved on the wall of fame , and most importantly you get one number for your country . Do it for your country!!!

Enjoy your 15 shots any night of the year at Cocomangas Shooter Bar  , Boracay Island,in the Philppines. Give us a call at 63-36-288-6384.

Yours Truly,

John Munro