Day 8 - Las Penitas

Day 8 – Las Penitas

Woke up and had a good Nica Typico breakfast consisting of eggs, gallo pinto, cheese, tortillas, and coffee. We wanted to check our email and the only internet cafe is by the estuary across from Barca del Oro. We waked along the road (about 30 minutes form Olazul) to the internet café. The computers are in a stifling hot room with no fans – I wonder how long those computers will last in that heat? The connection was painfully slow. Kat tried to use the bathroom but found it to be completely disgusting and instead went to Barca del Oro and had some lemonade and then a few Victorias.



We then walked back along the beach stopping to watch some dogs run back and forth along the rocks at Playa Roca chasing a bird. We got back to Olazul and changed into our swimsuits – another guest at the hotel told us that the beach was better for swimming closer to where there is a cross on top of the rocks further north. We walked north towards the cross but the waves still looked pretty fierce so we gave up and turned back around to swim in the hotel’s pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in hammocks reading one of the many books we had packed. It rained for a bit which was nice as it cooled down. After it stopped raining we took a walk along the road towards Poneloya. Where the road splits to Poneyloya or Leon we cut in towards the beach and found a crumbling house with FSLN graffiti on the outside. The house was a shambles but looked like it was once a nice place with a pool and great view of the beach. From the house we could see that we were now north of the cross that we tried to get to before and were at Poneyloya beach and saw lots of people swimming in much more gentle water.



We then walked back along the beach to the hotel and then drive to Playa Roca hoping that since it was an ex-pat handout we might find some resemblance of a turkey thanksgiving dinner. The owner told me that this was the first year he hadn’t had Thanksgiving so we settled for their happy hour where we drank more Flor de Cana and played cards and got some chicken wings as a snack. At about 7:30 we walked next door to Hotel Suyapa Beach which was recommended for dinner but we were told that the kitchen was closed for the night! Disappointed we drove back to our hotel and we both had a yummy chicken curry and split a killer sundae for dessert.

Day 7 – Drive to Las Penitas

I woke up early – the power was out so I took a walk to get some cash from an ATM. There are several in town but none of my cards seemed to work in any of them. Now I was getting seriously worried since we were low on cash. Finally I spotted an ATM at the Hotel Casa Blanca and fortunately I was able to get 4000 cordobas ($200) as a cash advance on my credit card.

We had breakfast and checked out of our hotel and were on the road by 8:30. We stopped at La Virgen to take some pictures of Ometepe – the wind was blowing pretty hard across the lake.



The drive to Managua was pretty uneventful – once on the outskirts of Managua we filled up the gas tank and turned onto the old highway towards Leon which was in pretty bad shape with lots of rough patches and potholes (we found out later that the new highway is just to the north and is much smoother). Every now and then there would be some kids in the road filling up the potholes with dirt in hopes that drivers would give them some coins for their work. I had a pocket full of change and each time I’d given them a few cordobas and they would be really appreciative. A Cordoba is worth about a nickel and I thought to myself that these kids were excited because “the rich Americans are handing out nickels!”

We arrived in Leon at about noon and got a little lost as we didn’t know where to make the turn into the city. After driving around for a bit we finally found some landmarks and were able to find the road to Las Penitas. The road to the beach is brand new and in excellent shape – only taking us about 20 minutes from Leon to the beach. Las Penitas only consists of one road that runls along the beach. The road is lined with beach homes for wealthy Nicaraguan  families. We checked out a few hotels that I had earmarked in the guide book – They were doing work on the end of the road by the lagoon so La Samaki and Barca del Oro weren’t really accessible. We also checked out Playa Roca but the only room was right next to the restaurant and didn’t have a/c. We decided on Olazul which was nice – right on the beach with nice rooms, a/c, pool, and breakfast included for $45 ($35 if you didn’t want a/c and they also have a dorm room for $10 – one person staying in the dorm said she had it all to herself the entire time she was there). After checking in we had some cold Victorias and some good nachos in the restaurant. We then decided to take a swim in the ocean but the waves were breaking right on shore. When trying to go in the water I would immediately get knocked down and then dragged out by the undertow. It was like getting beat up! We quickly gave up on swimming in the ocean and instead cooled off in the hotel’s swimming pool.

After showering and watching another amazing sunset it started to rain so we drove down to Playa Roca for their happy hour (2x1 drinks) we drank some strong cuba libres and watched an incredible lightning show over the ocean. Since it was raining we decided to stay and eat there having some decent chicken burgers and fries – paying about $20 for all our drinks and food. It had stropped raining so we took a walk to the estuary and then back to Playa Roca to get the car and go back to our hotel where we had a few more drinks at the bar with some of the other people staying at the hotel before hitting the sack.