Surfing Las Penitas
Las penitas has long been a popular destination for locals and expats lucky enough to find this hidden gem located 12 miles or 18 km from the city of Leon on Nicaraguas west coast. 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 pacific coast but forget to explore the fantastic surfing further south.
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. The beach has a surfing school ready to help beginners and more advanced surfers a like and it is located on the beach between the popular hotels Playa Roca and Oasis. The school offers lessons, rent out equipment and body boars as well as having a skilled repair man that can fix any damages your board might have if you want him to.
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+. The bottom is sandy but in a few spots rocks are hidden below the surface during hide tide, so asking the locals or spending some time checking out the beach during low tide is recommended.
On the beach you will find several hotels and hostels that offer affordable accommodation. You can get a cheap private room from 20USD/night and dorm beds from 6 USD/night with even cheaper alternatives being developed. Most hotels and hostels also serve relatively cheap food, such as catch of the day, fried meat with jalapeno sauce, and hamburgers. Near the entrance of Las Penitas is the Bertha restaurant that offers a gigantic sea food platter enough to satisfy 2-3 persons for 250 cordobas, which is less than 13 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. If you want a coconut? 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
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