Nicaragua- year 2-- Sunday air travel

Our mission trip for 2017 had different goals than our first trip.  Our primary focus this year was to check on the Kukra Hill installation from last year and to investigate possible places for an installation in 2018.

We left on Sunday May 7 about  noon on United Airlines headed to Houston.  This is a very short flight and we had some layover time in Houston before heading to Managua, Nicaragua.    We were taking 2 boxes of filters for the  new supply warehouse to be established in Pearl Lagoon, so that systems could replace maintenance supplies without weeks of waiting for them to be shipped from Managua or Guatamala.  Part of our contractual obligation with Kukra Hill was to provide filters for the year after installation.
We expected some hassles and extra cost when we retrieved the boxes at Nica customs, but were pleasantly surprised when we were not charged an extra amount and had no problem taking them to the hotel with us.

The hotel  across the street from the airport in Nicaragua is a Best Western and is quite nice.

It has a couple of drawbacks-- the sign on the back of the bathroom door says not to drink the water (nor should you brush teeth with it) and there is no hot water (typical of Nica)   Very comfortable room with A/C and it was very clean.

The breakfast buffet had melon/pineapple and an omelet chef.  Cereal and rice were available as well along with FRESH juices.  

We had reservations at La Costena airlines to fly to Bluefields.   This experience was fascinating because we were in a teeny tiny plane- holding about 12 passengers.  We were boarded by first names and the Nicaraguans have a hard time with mine.  We were called by name to line up in order to get into the plane.  We three chose the front seats and could have touched the pilot ( a pretty young woman not over 30 )and co-pilot also quite young.
I watched the altimeter and the other gauges, not that they meant anything to to me, but really interesting.

The pilot and co-pilot chatted and adjusted the knobs and levers, put it on auto-pilot for awhile and fiddled with phones.  At one point, with the sun in their eyes, they took a car sun shield and put it over the windshield.  That wasn't enough, so a piece of cardboard was wedged in by the existing sun shield.   We noticed a large road being constructed down below.  This was discussed further in our trip as a road connecting the east with the west of Nicaragua and is expected to bring large changes to the eastern part of the country.

As we deplaned, a woman in a nurses whites uniform was holding an electronic device up to each traveler, taking their temperature.  I am guessing that if a person's temp was high, they might be quarantined or sent back.  Glad I didn't have to find out.

We got a taxi (they are everywhere and usually quite reasonable) to the central Moravian church and waited for our partners from Virginia who were traveling via Miami.