Pinoy Coke Fanatics Eyeball and Field Trip in Santa Rosa , Laguna

Santa Rosa, Laguna province-Philippines

It was a sunday mid-morning 10:30 am when i rode a bus  from EDSA Makati going to San Pedro – Laguna province ( Pacita complex) Php 55.00  then i took another jeepney ride Php 11.00 passing  Biñan then Balibago .The eyeball is our Christmas party too.

group photo

The jeepney driver only passed the main highway and i  have to walked for a few meters . I bought some local pizza along the way before i took a tricycle ride to  Villa Esmeralda Subdivision  ( Php 70.00 Special Fare ) which is located near Enchanted Kingdom.

L-R Ms. Roselily Z. Buduan , Mr. Nico Bazarte and Mr. Fernando “Nanding” Enriquez of Tagcauayan , Quezon province

I arrived shortly after 1:00PM , where almost all of the participants have eaten their lunch.  Some of the early birds arrived in the morning , while one member had to travel all the way from Quezon province just to attend this important eyeball and Christmas party.

Everybody brought different kinds kinds of foods, from pancit bihon, pancit bato ( flat noodles with quail eggs and pork liver ) , barbecues, sugpo , fresh mangoes, watermelon , cassava cake, pata tim,  sliced pineapples, dinguan , yema, pastillas , coke candies , ice cream and a whole array of different home cooked meals. The event would not be complete without a bottle of Coke products like Coca-Cola , Royal and Sprite 1.5 liter . The group like to spread the happiness to everybody .

 raffle committee and members

Then , all the attendees name were gathered.  The committee have a short raffle of coke collectible items, mostly donated by fellow coke collectors from different parts of the world. . There are all sorts of items being traded, swap, sold during the meeting. Since i was a little bit LATE for the swap meet, i just got a sneak view on what items the members took home.  There are also regional coke managers who brought some FREEBIES !!!!

coke items for  SALE

Mr. Dranreb Recio – collector of coke

Mr. Danreb Recio is an avid coke collectible collector since 2009 . He had been collecting coke items for about 4 years . He specializes on coke glasses  and mugs.

After the first round of raffle, there are still a lot of items to be given away. Hence there was another set of raffle to all that were present .

I got 1 coke glass,1 plastic tumbler, coke posters, 1 cherry flavored-coke in can from  the United States and I was very lucky to won a coke speaker during the second round of the raffle. The gracious host also gave away 1 pair of Coke postcards from Belgium.  Mr. Nico Bazarte gave me 3 coke trading card packs   ( I decided not to open them and keep them as MINT condition ) .  Maraming salamat sa lahat na nakadaupang palad ko . Thanks.

Coke Polar Bear collection of Mr. Fred Dimal

 The tour did not end in one house, the group decided to visit another coke collector from nearby Laguna Bel Air Subdivision, a few kilometers away from Villa Esmeralda .

Mr. Fred Dimal is an artist and photographer  before he went into collecting coke items . He started his passion for coke collecting in 2009 .  He proudly showed us the limited commemorative Coke Book ( 100 years ) in special box. We decided to visit the house of another coke collector a few blocks away.

Mr. Joey Bulatao’s house

Mr. Joey Bulatao

 Mr. Joey Bulatao – a former coke employee . Our group was amaze with the size of his house which stands on a 900- square meter lot.

276 pieces of coke bottles transformed into chandelier

Due of his architectural and interior design skills . His house looked like it had several floors . He had 2 unique chandelier made from several hundreds of pieces of coke bottles .

coke bar lounge

The coke bottles were salvage from ship wreck in Bantayan island , Cebu province in 1990’s .  Most of the coke bottles were made at the San Francisco bottling plant from 1942 and 1944 .

It was intended to be  given to the American forces which liberated the island .  The Japanese  bombarded the ship until all the supplies eventually got lost .

coke glasses , mugs, bottles, tumblers, toy truck

He started his passion for collecting coke items  in 1993 and even had built a separate room ( basement ) for his coke collections. His 20-year coke collecting passion led him to join the Pinoy Coke Fanatics . Kuya Joey gave us some coke items .

wooden coke cases with empty bottles

We then went to another coke collector a few kilometers away , the husband and wife collector started collecting coke items in 2006.  Due to time constraints and  some renovations , I opted not to feature them here.  Their large coke collections are an eye to behold. I would like to ” Thank” them for their warm hospitality and for the coke bottle opener that they gave to the visitors.

We hitch ride with  Mr. NorManila until we reached Cubao area .  Mommy Roselily , Mr.  Dwayne Miranda and I  rode a public bus going to NORTH Avenue terminal station where  we rode an Asian Utility Vehicle  on our way home.  It was such a wonderful experience  to spread Happiness to ALL !