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 is suitable for surfers of all levels of expertise, but the undertow can be fearsome so signing up for at least a few local surfing classes is recommended if your are a beginner. 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. 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 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. The way height start 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.
Las Penitas offers a wide variety of affordavle accomondations and is home to a number of Hotels, Hotels and B&Bs. Dorms start at 6 USD/night and private rooms are available from 20 USD/night. There is plenty of resturant, hotels and hostels offering cheap food that usually keep a rather high quality. 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 want to eat even cheaper, buy rice and beans and fried pirogues from the food stands people put up in front of their houses in the evening. In the local shops you can purchase a bag of bread for less than a dollar and a one-foot granadilla fruit for not much more. 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.
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. If you for some reason are in a hurry, you pay a cab driver 150-200 cordobas (7.50-10 USD) to take you from Leon to Las Penitas in 15 minutes, but some taxis might be too small to accommodate a surfing board. 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
Surfing is one of my favorite sports eventhough i got a bad accident last year because of very high surfs..`~
i am an adrenalin junkie so i love to surf on very high waves;*,
we are always looking for those big waves where we can enjoy Surfing, afterall, Surfing is all about the big waves-,”