I finally got a chance to visit Nicaragua this spring. A couple of my friends were anxious to find a warm spring surfing Adventure, away from the incessantly cold and rainy year in California. I remembered Nicaragua, did a little research and we were on the way. This was a hastily arranged one-week fact-finding surfing trip, with my longboarding friend Ariana and my South African friend Doctor David, who rides a surf ski and boogie board. I had my short board and gun, so we covered most all the bases except for tow-ins. We were delighted to discover awesome surfing conditions, with all kinds of wave types and skill levels. But more importantly for me, I discovered the Nicaraguan people to be some of the friendliest and most helpful that I had met anywhere in the world.

The trip to Nicaragua is a Third World adventure from the start. Checking into TACA airlines in Los Angeles can take hours. The long flight to Managua includes a stopover in El Salvador, where drug sniffing-dogs and police with automatic rifles roam the airport. It is a good chance to window shop and taste the cuisine of the country.

After a long night of flying, we weren't quite ready for Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. This is where more than two-thirds of the population of the entire country live. The airport, however, is not much larger than Santa Barbara regional airport in California. Negotiating for a vehicle was a tedious process. My research had recommended renting a Toyota four-wheel drive, but we settled instead for a bigger, more enclosed Korean four-wheel drive, which almost became a very costly mistake.
Driving through the capital and much of Nicaragua is also a Third World experience. The main transportation is provided by a fleet of old yellow school buses converted to public vehicles. The buses are crammed with goods and people, and some people crawl out of the emergency exits and on to the roof, while the bus is moving, to escape the oppressive heat inside. Motor vehicles share the road with all types of horse and donkey carts; motorcycles; bicycles and surreys. Further into the countryside, the roads also become clogged with ox carts, pedestrians, cattle, chickens, pigs and any other living thing that might want to wander about.

We focused our trip on the Pacific coastal region of Rivas, where most of the surf camps have sprung up. There is good reason for this. Gigantic Lake Nicaragua is in this region, with two towering volcanoes protruding from the middle. Regular ferry service connects people to the small towns on the volcanoes. The massive lake creates offshore lake-effect winds for the entire coastal region, about nine months out of the year. This also the only region of Nicaragua without endemic malaria, so medication is unnecessary. Spring is the end of the dry season, the downside being hot dusty conditions, with a brown and barren countryside. The rainy season brings a beautiful verdant countryside to life and cools the hot dry air, but the dirt roads and river beds can become impassable, and the mosquitoes begin to multiple.

Rivas is a small city located inland near the lakeshore. It is the economic hub of the area. Food markets wind through the town square towards a beautiful old Catholic church, which was built in 1607. This is a great place to stock up on supplies, with the only extensive inventory in the region.
Our first destination was the harbor town of San Juan Del Sur. Located about four hours from Managua airport and an hour from Rivas. This is the original base of operation for surf exploration in southern Nicaragua. It is a small, pleasant tourist town built around a beautiful natural bay. There are plenty of restaurants, hotels, and hostels to keep a steady stream of tourists happy. There is not much surf in the bay, but it is a popular place to rent a boat to explore the coastline.

You can drive to many of the surf spots in Nicaragua, but most of the coastline is restricted private property, and the rainy season can create impassable roads. For these reasons, a boat can be the best transportation.

We arrived at the Hotel Colonial in late afternoon. I picked the spot, because the manager, Chelo, is a knowledgeable surfing tour guide. Without hesitation, he hopped in the car with us and guided us to the closest good surf spot, Maderas. It is about a 30-minute drive on a long, dusty dirt road. Maderas, which means wood in Spanish, is named after a large phallic rock rising from the ocean. This is the most popular beach in the area. Depending on the tide, it is not uncommon to see 30-40 surfers in the lineup, mostly shredding, young, happy-go-lucky local Nicaraguans, with a mix of European and American tourists. We arrived just before a spectacular sunset, to a three-four-foot offshore swell, with a handful of people in the water. The wave is a right- and left-hand beach break, with a rocky left hand-barrel in the southern corner. Both waves are fun and rippable, depending on the tide. A very basic dormitory hotel sits right on the beach in front of the break, for the budget surfers wanting to stay in the prime action scene. A walk 30 minutes to the north provides another good beach break under the phallic rock. We surfed though a blood-red sunset, the hot, dry offshore winds blowing the faces back on us like warm bath water. We returned to San Juan Del Sur in time to consume mass quantities of fresh seafood, in one of the harbor restaurants, and watched the mostly European tourists dance in the local disco until late in the night.

The next day, we headed south on the main dirt road to explore the coastline, passing the colorful graveyard with a cow grazing in the middle. The bow from a great rusted freighter sat in an open field.
Our first stop was playing Remanso (romantic beach), a beautiful bay with a left reef and right-hand beach break. An inconsistent three-foot offshore swell went unridden.
Next, we ventured to Playa Yankee, which is becoming one of many resort communities in the middle off nowhere in coastal Nicaragua. There is a gate to the beach road, but if you are friendly, the caretaker family will usually open it for you. We were greeted with another spectacular bay, empty waves breaking both to the left and the right.

Our final destination was Ostional sea turtle reserve. We snuck in through yet another construction community. The south swell was small here, as it picks up a swell more from the southwest. A right-hand reef was peeling perfectly inconsistent, two to three feet. Like all the southern beaches we checked, there was no one in the water. Ostional reef also looked good for diving.

The following morning, we headed inland towards Rivas. After stocking up on supplies, we then took the coast road heading north to Rancho Santana. Rancho Santana is a sprawling resort development in the middle of nowhere. The original right-wing land barons claimed most of the coastal lands many years ago and turned them into private property. The popular success of the Sandinista revolution did little to change the property laws. In fact, many of the Sandinista leaders, themselves, seized land of their own and also became land barons. Today, the government is selling these lands to American and European tourists, who are becoming the new land barons. It is a quandary whether to support these private resorts, while most of the population lives in absolute poverty. But these resorts create thousands of jobs and an economy of tourism that would otherwise not exist in these regions. So if tourists would like to spend half a million dollars and up for a beach house in the poorest country in Central America, I will not be the one to dissuade them. Luckily, the rental prices are much more affordable than ownership prices. The government is also now taking steps to insure that the public has right-of-way on coastal property to the high tide mark, if you can find a public path to the beach.
Rancho Santa is about an hour from Rivas, at the end of a remote dirt road, not far from the fishing village of Playa Gigante. Although it is hours by car back to the southern port, it is less than an hour by Panga boat. The area is the center of the new surfing discoveries of southern Nicaragua. No less than six surf camps can be found within a 10-mile radius, some with their own private surf points.
The surf camps are pricey and you are limited to the itineraries they decide on each day. But for first time-visitors or those looking for a little more leisurely and less stressful adventure, they might be a good bet. Most of them offer pick-up service at the Managua airport. Not needing a car and avoiding the stress of driving can be worth the extra expense.

I was astonished at the extent of development as we pulled into Rancho Santa. Armed guards provide 24-hour security at the front gate. The sprawling properties include two horse stables, a tennis court and a clubhouse with a pool, restaurant, and tennis courts.
We rented the smallest casita, a two-bedroom about half a mile from the beach for $150 a night. The luxury of the units is mind-boggling, considering the isolation of the area, including direct TV, central air, and all the amenities of a luxury resort.

The property sits in the middle of a surfing Mecca. In front of the clubhouse is a beach break. Playa Santana is the most popular spot in the area for the locals and can have 25 or 30 surfers when conditions are perfect. A rock shelf covered by sand offers a short barreling left, with a longer left and right peak further up the sandy beach. Locals were shredding a perfect 3-5-foot swell the day we arrived, the younger ones hooting like monkeys when one of their friends fell off or got tubed. The dry howling offshore winds would increase during the day, and everyone would leave for mid-day siesta. You can almost guarantee surf to yourself during this time in Nicaragua. Around the corner, a bowling left-point breaks over a razor-sharp reef. Few people surf it and Dr. David found it a perfect wave for boogie boarding. It is quite surfable at the right tide.

Another road, accessible only thorough Rancho Santana, takes you to Playa Colorado. This rarely surfed stretch of beach has a right-hand reef break that can handle a big swell and left-and right-beach break named Iguanas. A long walk from Playa Gigante to the south or a boat ride is the only way the locals can get there.

Playa Gigante is a small fishing village just to the south of Rancho Santana. It is a great place to rent a panga. We brought along Eddie, a friendly local from Playa Santana, and he arranged for a friend to rent us a boat there for about $50 dollars for the day. The pangas are long, sleek boats designed for fishing and beach launches through pounding surf. Just getting in and out of the shore break is an adventure.

You can rent a boat and head north to the Santana spots along Playa Colorado or head south to Playa Manzanillo. The latter was our choice this day, a long peeling left in front of a rock cliff. Double overhead sets jacked and peeled in the offshore wind as we arrived. We shared the spot with three other boatloads of surfers on and off, with a crowd of four to 10 surfers. I needed my 7'6" mini-gun to negotiate the outside sets with the fierce howling offshore winds. Later, I tried to take water shots from the majestic sweeping point. I took a set on the head so hard it broke the seal on my water housing and I barely made it back to the boat before completely flooding my camera. David trolled for Dorado on the boat ride home. I wasn't prepared for the intense sun on the Panga and actually sunburned the top of my head for the first time in recent memory. I was glad to get back to the beach.
We had a delicious meal at the only other real restaurant in the area. Only open three weeks, it is run by an American and his Nicaraguan wife. She is a certified gourmet cook. The food was fantastic and there is no other restaurant of its quality within 50 miles. There are a few fish stands and beer bars in town as well.

The next day, we drove North to the fishing town of Astillero river mouth. We tried to drive up and check the right-hand point off the river mouth. The locals in town showed us where to get onto the beach; they were hanging out at the bus stop waiting for the end of their siesta. Fully decked with the latest baggies, rash guards, sunglasses and surfboards they were a funny sight in the dusty main street. They had no wax, though, and no way of getting any within 50 miles. So bring lots of wax when you come to visit and you can make lots of friends. We barreled down the beach to the edge of the rock point.

As we turned around, we found the limits of our big Korean four- wheel-drive. We got stuck on the edge of the reef where it meets the sand, and the incoming tide was threatening to take our car straight out to sea. Seemingly from nowhere, local people began running and biking to our aid, and they eventually pushed our car free, saving us from sure disaster. The right-hand point here opens on to a sandy beach and when the river mouth is not flowing in the dry season, it is a sandy barreling bottom.

In the middle of Astillerlo is a big outside reef that looks perfect for tow-in surfing. It is a long paddle and exposed to extreme offshore winds for a regular surf session, but the possibility exists.
We stayed in the little village after sunset for dinner. The restaurant there might make u a fish dinner if the lady was in the mood. They deep fry the fresh local snapper and serve them with rice and fried plantains. There is also a little wooden store with a few dozen items and a couple of wooden shacks serving local beer and rum.

As we drove out of town the locals were hanging out in front of the Saturday night disco.
A dirt palapa was transformed into a dance floor. The music alternated between a disco track where the teens would dance, and a haphazard band, led by a cymbal, playing traditional music. Ariana passed out little Day-Glo trinkets she had brought with her and was mobbed by the local kids, who then ran gleefully though the night.

The next day, we went exploring for our own spot. We began asking locals if we could access private beach property and passed out local money like confetti. We were finally rewarded on our fourth try when we found our own secluded bay.

A left-hand reef peeled off a rocky corner and an outside reef in the middle of the bay provide a soft easy 6-8-foot rolling left-and-right wave. It was a perfect relaxing setting with warm water and the ever-present howling offshore winds. We surfed into the blood-red sunset and later went for another delicious snapper dinner.

We had a quick surf the final morning and started back on the long four-hour drive to the airport. We snaked though the traffic and were almost at our destination, when the traffic slowed to a crawl. Less than a mile from the airport, a truck driver explained in Spanish that students had blocked the main road to protest rising public transport prices and had burned a bus.
Local traffic began fleeing the scene. My crazy doctor buddy decide the only way we would make our flight was to run the barricade. We went up on the sidewalk around the barricade
Shouting students looked perplexed at our surfboard-covered tourist car. Police reluctantly waved us on and we swerved pass the protest. Even rampaging students were relatively polite to us, shouting slogans, then smiling and waving. We arrived at a nearly empty airport terminal and headed away from our first trip to Nicaragua. I can't wait for another chance to go back.

Getting There: TACA has the best fares if you don't mind slow service at the counter and a stopover in El Salvador. TACA.com
American Airlines has service through Miami to Managua. AA.com
Where To Stay: San Juan Del Sur: Hotel Colonial. Rates from $44.00/night, includes breakfast. http://www.hotel-nicaragua.com. Rancho Santana: http://www.nicaraguaoceanhouse.com Playa Gigante: "Giants Foot Tours, based out of Gigante Beach, is run by a few Enthusiastic and capable young folks and located closer to the best waves than anyone in Southern Nicaragua. Their motto is "send them home happy" and judging by the smiles on their faces they're probably pretty good at doing just that. They send their clients to eat at a local restaurant called "The Griffe's," a small restaurant run by, and from, the house of Mr. and Mrs. Griffe. She is a native Nicaraguan who lived in the USA before returning to work for and eventually manage the Holiday Inn in Managua. He is a retired aerospace worker who is living his retirement dream. Together, they run one of the best restaurants - and certainly one of the best-kept secrets - in all of Nicaragua." - Jack Uccciferri Giantsfoot.com