Pics of the Mauna Loa - Madrid

here are some pics from the mauna loa in madrid - which has been around since the early 70s. we were there fairly early in the evening & the place was already buzzing. as we left more & more people (mostly college-aged) were showing up. we walked by the bar a few hours later & there was a line stretching around the block to get it, which is incredible b/c the mauna loa is a caverous 3 story (or more?) bar!

no actually tikis anywhere except for the mugs & on the drinks menu, but this place was a real inspiration:

cool murals:

live birds (see there perches on the left-hand side of the picture below:

one of the waiters went around giving all the ladies lei & roses w/ cocktail umbrellas sticking out of them. here's tiki emi sporting the lei & showing off her drink (the bottom of the mug had "arte4" carved into it). if you look in the bottom right-hand corner, you can see one of the roses w/ a cocktail umbrella sticking out of the top:

more pics:

coaster:

napkin:

bar:

way cool, nice pic!

Thanks for the photos Chris! Any more?

My camera (with Mauna Loa film) was stolen soon after visiting by thieving gypsy bastards, so I've only very vague memories of the place. My memories are dim because we had their version of a volcano bowl, which actually comes in an enormous ceramic volcano! The Spanish aren't tight with their drink measures, either.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing your tales of Madrid.

Trader Woody

I have this big two hole pineapple mug with "arte4" on the bottom but it has tiny little S.A. on the logo, sounds like a clue to an unknown mediteranian tiki mug maker

On 2003-01-04 13:03, atomictonytiki wrote:
I have this big two hole pineapple mug with "arte4" on the bottom but it has tiny little S.A. on the logo, sounds like a clue to an unknown mediteranian tiki mug maker

i may be completely wrong about this, but i think s.a. is the equivalent of "inc." or "limited" or something like that.

I was at the Maona Loa in the summer of 2000, purely by chance. Two other high school teacher/grad students and I were taking a weekend break from our studies in Salamanca, and walked by the bar on our way home to our perfect little hostel off Plaza del Sol (just up from the Irish bar under the Tio Pepe sign). I begged that we HAD to go, which my sweet non-Tiki-loving friends indulged. The fotos from later that night have us all covered with leis, holding those two foot green straws, and my friend Dyana is under the bed. We still don't remember why...

I have no pics of the place at all, because a cute drunk at the running of the bulls in Pamplona two weekends before broke my camera. Not sure if gypsies would've been a better fate...

Our group's last weekend was in Fuengirola, the south south of Spain (with nary a Spaniard in sight, just Brits and Germans). There was a Tiki bar there, the Tahiti. Like the Maona Loa, nothing but bad Euro-trash music, but it did have some cool mugs, which I openly coveted - but resisted the urge to take. There are hazy memories (and incriminating videos) of karaoke later that night (Status Quo and Scorpions were available), and at breakfast the next morning, after all my bags were packed with no centimeter of space left, the undergrads presented me with three 5-finger-discounted killer drink receptacles, including the above-mentioned volcano ("serves 8")!!! I had to squish my shampoo and everything into the mugs just to get them into my bags. I think I took out my pajamas, even.

I have already confessed to Otto that I have them and was secretly - well, openly delighted at their theft - especially as I did not steal them but was nonetheless going home with them! (which means I'm still going to hell, but I get to keep the mugs, right?)The volcano sits up high as my crown jewel, surrounded with Kahiki Maoi mugs standing guard.

I will be back in Madrid this summer - thanks for reminding me!! And I finally get to go to Barcelona and see all the cool spots there!

(oh, two of the Spanish mugs have an interlocking M and V logo on the bottom)

[ Edited by: formikahini on 2003-01-09 10:07 ]

I was reading an article about Spanish football hooligans last night, and was intrigued to find that some of the worst ones met up at a bar named the "Moai". No address was given, but it's near the Bernabeu stadium.

It may not be a Tiki bar at all, but if any particularly intrepid traveller wants to check it out, it could well be a hidden gem. The stadium itself is well worth a visit anyway, so your journey wouldn't be completely wasted!

Trader Woody