Tuesday plans B and C

Since we weren't going anywhere early for sure (customs opened at 8:30 or so) we had a leisurely breakfast.  The buffet at the Las Mercedes Best Western is really quite good.  Great local juice, made to order omelets, various side dishes (plantains, bacon, mystery meat, cereal, breads and as always beans and rice).
Before breakfast I was walking around the hotel grounds, when I met a lady who was there on a church building mission trip.  Her group included 12 people  from Mississippi and they were building several churches in the general area, and staying in Managua each night.  We chatted about our respective goals for our trips and she mentioned that she'd like to come with us.  

We're still hoping to have our equipment released, but it looks like with all the extra paperwork required, it's not happening today.  The guys, Walter, David and Harry decide on a tour of Granada with one of Fernando's drivers driving them and Yovett as translator (driver didn't speak English)  The ladies opted for a quiet afternoon at the hotel with some preparation chores to do and lots of chilling.  When the guys returned from their tour, we all sat down to see if we could plan what to do.  It was first thought that the Texans could fly across country quickly to make up some time lost sitting around waiting.  Harry checked on flight information and there were not seats on La Costena for us until Thursday afternoon.  Scratch Plan B-- Plan C was to drive across Nica in one of Fernando's vans beginning Wed morning at 5 am-- why so early?  It is a 9-10 hour trip and the drivers will need to drive back when they drop us off at our Pearl Lagoon Hotel- the Green Lodge.  Which means these guys (trading off) would drive 18-20 hours  straight on some very bad road  some of it in the dark. 
This was  decided, and we prepared our bags and ourselves for a very early morning.
A bit about the Managua hotel-- the water in the bathroom is not safe to drink, so we began brushing teeth with bottled water there.  The shower was adequate, with warm water, but not hot.    All in all it was a good place to stay, with good food available, lovely grounds, air conditioning and the common areas were cleaned constantly.  It has been recently renovated and is still under construction in some place.