Surfing in Nicaragua – Las Penitas
Located 12 miles or 20 km from the colonial city of Leon on the Nicaraguan west coast, Las Penitas has long been a favoured hang-out for locals and a few expats who stumbled upon it by chance. Despite offering world-class surfing opportunities Nicaragua is still very much of a white spot on the map for the surfing community who flock to crowded beaches along the U.S. and Mexican west coast but fail to explore what Central America has to offer.
Las Penitas can be recommend for beginner and anvanced surfers a like but the beach do have a strong undertow and a few lessons from local surfers are recommended if you are a novice surfer. There is a surfing school located in a small thatched hut right on the beach between Playa Roca and Hostel Oasis. In addition to offering classes the school rents out surfing boards and body boards, and can also repair a damaged board for you.
The beach of Las Penitas is surfed year round and known for its consistency when it comes to offering great waves. The waves are point-break waves with a lenght of 50-150 meters. Swells starts working at 1.0-1.5 m and holds up to 3 m+. It is a sand beach with a few hidden rocks below the surface and a few large rock formations going out into the water and it can therefore be a good idea to ask a local about the locations of the rocks or to visit the beach during low tide before starting to surf.
Las Penitas offers a wide variety of affordavle accomondations and is home to a number of Hotels, Hotels and B&Bs. You can get a cheap private room from 20USD/night and dorm beds from 6 USD/night with even cheaper alternatives being developed. There is plenty of resturant, hotels and hostels offering cheap food that usually keep a rather high quality. An example of this is ther restaurant Bertha located nead the entrancy to Las Penitas that offer a gigantic sea food platter that is enough for 2-3 persons for less than 13 usd and very good fish dishes for 5 USD. If you budget is very low you can eat from stands outside peoples houses at night for less than 1 USD. The local shops offer a bag od breed for 15 cordobas (75 cents) and 2 dozen bananas for a buck. Want a cocoa nut? You can simple pick cocnuts on the beach due to the fact that the owners of the beach house dont harvest their coconuts and simply allow the nuts to fall on the beach.
You can get to managua on one of countless flights each day and getting here is easy as it is a mere 2 hours flight from Miami. Once in Managua airport, you will get your passport stamped by friendly inspectors who see it as their job to welcome foreign visitors to the country. During recent years, Nicaragua has passed several laws in order to encourage foreign tourism since the hospitaly sector offers a source of income to this impoverished nation where most middle aged people will have deep personal experiences of dictatorship, revolution and war.
From Managua you take the express bus from UCA (Universidad Centro America) to Leon for 40 cordobas (2 USD) and then catch the 10 cordoba (50 cent) bus to Las Penitas / Poneloya from El Mercandito de Sutiaba. It is also possible to take a taxi from Leon to las penitas ata cost of about 10 USD, a Taxi all the way from the airport in Managua cost about 60 USD. The bus has plenty of room for boards but is a typical chicken bus that makes frequent stops along the way so expect the 20 km journey to take up to an hour
