Cabanas de Gigante

There are places you don’t write reviews about. You don’t write them because the review might cause more people to go, and then it won’t be what you wrote about. Surfing was the first adventure sport. And it invented the idea of the secret location. But what if you are a struggling Nicaraguan, with all your savings invested in a two room hotel. A single mum that needs to catch a bus for four hours to medical care through the dust and heat, when your daughter is sick. Who when she is isn’t sick, which she almost always isn’t, is more welcoming and relaxed than a person seems to have a right to be. This is the place you really want to go to if you are surfing in Nicaragua. The town of Gigante, the wave Colorado, the restaurant Mare Mar, and Bimania’s little hotel, Cabana’s de Gigante. Google the wave. This is the town near it, not the gringo ghetto in front. The rooms are comfy, private, secure and air conditioned. Lobster dinner’s you can’t finish for 5 bucks or so. Liters of beer for less than $2 and the best rum in the world for about $6 a half liter. Beautiful, friendly and world class waves. Enough of a party but normally a quiet fisherman’s beach. I love these people, and I never say that. The last thing I want is more people to go there, but then, I know that’s what they need. It’s an $80 taxi ride from Managua airport, which seems cheap now, but you can get there on buses through Rivas for about $5. It is about $30 from San Juan. Also there is an excellent Spanish school in the town with private lessons for between $5 and $10 per hour. I came for a weekend and stayed for 4 months. I have no financial connection at all to anyone there. Ask for Omar. He’s the only taxi driver and he’s a dude. And Birmania, the hotel owner, she’s a stunner.