Surfing in Las Penitas, Nicaragua
A video from Las Penitas and Poneloya
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 offers great waves all year around and is known to consistently offer great waves. The type is point-break and the normal length varies from 50 to 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.
On the beach you will find several hotels and hostels that offer affordable accommodation. Dorms start at 6 USD/night and private rooms are available from 20 USD/night. Most hotels and hostels also serve relatively cheap food, such as catch of the day, fried meat with jalapeno sauce, and hamburgers. 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.
Nicaragua is located just a two hour flight from Miami, FL and several flights depart to Nicaragua’s capital Managua on a daily basis. Once you arrive in Nicaragua you will have no problem in the customs and you will find the people very friendly. 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.
It is easy to get from Managua to Las Penitas by taking a bus that cost 40 cordoba (2 USD) from UCA in Managua to Leon and than a chicken bus to Las Penitas. 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