Staying at Coco Beach is one wholesome affair, like being warmly welcomed into a nourishing community. Here, guests meet new friends, and go through different island activities, while discovering the amazing facets of the area at their own leisurely pace. We give you a glimpse of what this resort,found islands away from the metropolis, has to offer.
At one of our leisure walks around Coco Beach Island Resort in Puerto Galera, we met Mang Mario and Ate Angie, a couple who is part of Coco Beach’s service family. They are caretakers of the suites and villas and are assigned to make sure that all the needs of guests are provided to make their stay relaxing and worry-free.
Mang Mario and Ate Angie had been staying at Coco Beach since the late 80′s. It is where they were able to raise their six children, send them to school, and give them a modest yet happy life.
According to Ate Angie, living at Coco Beach is a blessing. “Kung maganda ang performance mo, mayroon kang makukuha. Maganda ang pagtrato sa mga tao dito. Kung may sakit ka at nangangailangan, mayroong tutulong sayo. Dahil dito, mamahalin mo ang trabaho mo!” (If you give a nice performance, you will be receiving a bonus. People treat you well here. If you are sick or in need, somebody will always help you. These things make you really love your job!)
Mang Mario also relates how they were rewarded with a week-long vacation at Thailand, sometime in the year 2000. “Magandang experience iyon para sa amin, at nakapag-enjoy talaga kami!” (It was an unforgettable experience for us, and we really enjoyed it!)
This explains why staying at Coco Beach gives guests an enjoyable and comfortable experience. Everyone, the staff included, seem to have that genuine smile and a personality full of warmth and graciousness.
A Mutual, Interactive Community
Housekeepers, waitresses, crews, receptionists, bartenders, and other staff members of Coco Beach are also given, and receive valuable treatment, from the management and guests. They are able to interact freely, and spend some time with the guests. They seem to be treated as good friends and buddies, rather than mere workers who need to serve them or provide their needs.
On a happy hour ball game, guests, together with some of Coco Beach’s staff can have an hour’s worth of ball play—a basketball or volleyball game by the beach. The winner gets a shirt, the runner-up, a free happy hour drink, while the loser is thrown into the swimming pool, all in good fun.
For an exhilarating thrill, guests can also try a Coco Jump—an inverted kind of bungee-jumping, where, with a pair of secured ropes, an individual is being pulledand thrown high up in the air. Be prepared for a breathtaking feel and real good screams from the experience!
One can also play chess with a “service papa” or a male staff. If the guest wins, he or she can get a free dinner at where they are staying. If it’s the other way around, the guests have the opportunity to have lunch with the service family. On Wednesday afternoons, one can go around the resort with the gardeners, and know more about the lush flora and landscaping.
Ballroom dancing lessons are also offered at Coco Beach. Guests of different ages, most especially the girls, can learn graceful moves of ballroom dancing with a “service mama” (female staff), held at the resort’s Barracuda Bar.
On a Saturday night, guests can watch Coco Beach’s bartenders as they organize a frog and crab race, where one can place a beton the frog or crab, which they feel or think, will win the game.
On a Sunday morning, Coco Beach arranges a boat ride to the town of Puerto Galera, for guests and the staff members who want to attend the Mass.
Part and parcel of Coco Beach’s social responsibility is its active involvement in providing livelihood programs for the indigenous people of Mindoro: the Mangyans. Apart from that, they also invite guests to take part in a destressing outreach experience with the Mangyans.
Guests are encouraged to bring old clothes as part of goodwill to these indigenous people. This day-to-day interaction between guests and the staff leave unforgettable memories, and truly make one’s stay at Coco Beach complete and enjoyable.
Deli Ala Coco
The unique interaction provided by the service family further enhances the delightful amenities and services offered at Coco Beach.
More than its hundred and one activities, the resort has numerous restaurants that could cater to your craving at any given time of the day.
First is Carabao Restaurant. After a 15-minute trek on what seems to be a whack of wilderness for an urbanite, the eco-friendly façade of the resort, and the warm and assuring smiles of the Coco Beach staff at Carabao Restaurant would make you feel that the uphill climb, rough and pebble-ridden road is all worth it.
Indeed, paradise is more appreciated if you go through the jungle first. Carabao Restaurant is more like the haven of every spoiled brat in us. Regardless if you walked in there in your PJs or swim suit, it doesn’t matter, the cook will still prepare the craziest omelette that could jumpstart your day. They could also make dinners as memorable and special with the wide variety of themed buffets and even Saturday parties!
Speaking of parties, Coco Beach guests need not to wait for Saturdays to party since atop the Carabao Restaurant is the Barracuda Bar and Music Lounge. Named after the ocean fish with a bad reputation, the Barracuda is definitely the perfect place where the good girls can go bad! Or maybe not in every sense of the word, for this bar’s ambiance, great music, and cool drinks could also be a nice place where you can sit back and relax in their King Bamboo sofas during late afternoons or even after dinner. And just near the staircase, they also have a cozy place called Love Nest for couples who want privacy.
And for those who want to experience something different from the usual food that tropical resorts have been offering, there is always something exotic and downright mouth¬watering cooking in the specialty gourmet restaurants of Coco Beach. Trattoria “Sotto Le Stelle” specializes on satisfying the Italian taste buds. It offers as much as seven kinds of pizzas¬Margherita, Prosciutto, Quattroo Stagioni, Marinara, and the likes, definitely not the kind that you would normally see in our pizza parlors in Manila.
Craving for grilled specialties? Coco Beach surveyed every Asian cuisine in search of the perfect grilled specialty, to be served at the Touch of Asia restaurant where you have to ride their famous and one-of-a-kind cable jeep to get there. What about a romantic dinner date that you would only experience in Coco Beach? Then, Dona Lina revolving restaurant is perfectly blissful for such tete-a-tete. It offers a menu that is a cut above the rest and a stunning view that would surely complete the kind of ambiance that you have always been looking for in a fine-dining restaurant. One minute you are facing the sea and the next thing you know, it’s already the resort views that you are marveling on.
Sailing away
And if you are wondering why most of the restaurants schedule the best deals in the evening, it is because Coco Beach recommends outdoor picnic lunch for their beloved guests. Your adventure in Puerto Galera would be lacking if you only stayed in the island for the rest of your trip, which is why Coco Beach offers a wide range of boat tours to choose from, each of them with a packed picnic lunch at any nature sanctuary that you choose!
You could drool over those cute dolphins, explore the hidden paradise in the wilderness overnight, rent the hummer jeep and drive around in a diverse terrestrial adventure, experience San Rafael jungle river, trek Mount Baclayan and meet the Mangyans. You can even sail, stay and fly with the 3-day special where you could have a chance to fly and sail your way to another prized island in the country: Boracay.
Indeed, there is more to life here in Mindoro, as well as in Coco Beach. It is a refreshing change from the usual endless party in the white beach part of Galera. It offers a ton of activities where you could learn, enjoy and relax more!
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Tags: coco beach island resort, genuine smile, puerto galera, staff members