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Arriving in Toronto, I looked out of the plane window to see a fantastic skyline of brilliant city lights illuminated by a burning red, orange, and purple sky. The city expanded as we flew farther towards the airport. After landing and getting off the plane into brisk Canadian evening air, I walked what seemed a ridiculously long way along the terminal to my next gate. I was able to exchange some USD for Chilean Pesos, which was recommended to me by a fellow Chilean traveller. I then bought what I thought was going to be a reasonably priced chicken sandwich meal, but turned out to cost me more than $10 when paying with USD, rather than Canadian money. Finally satiated, I proceeded to sit at my gate for the plane to arrive. I attempted to buy a outlet adapter out of a Best Buy vending machine but unfortunately something was wrong and it wouldn't accept my card. So, I will just have to buy one when I arrive in Santiago. (Turned out that was a great payoff because I would have spent waaaaay too much for many adapters I wouldn't even be using. $40 vs $3!)
After boarding the plane (which was 45 minutes late), we were finally off. I had an aisle seat next to this lovely canadian gentleman who spoke some English. I believe he does/did a lot of paragliding in Chile? He was kind enough and kept saying "it's funny, funny". Haha I have spent my time thus far watching Sherlock Holmes and enjoyed a delicious inflight meal of chicken, veggies, coleslaw, bread, chocolate pudding, and Chardonnay. :)
Got a fairly adequate nap/sleep in on the plane and watched a bit of Men In Black 3. Arriving in Santiago, I paid my US reciprocity fee of $160 and went through immigration (with not the happiest of ladies at the counter.. I don't think she liked her job much.) I found my checked bag to be intact and I was through security before I knew it. I ended up taking a taxi to the bus/metro station --and yes, that is exactly what all reviews I read said would be a waste of money, but I got excited and confused with spanish and before I knew it I paid too much for transportation. Oh well, life moves on :-P lol
Found my way to Providencia Hostel, which had terrific reviews online, from the metro very easily. The guy at the front desk was very helpful and spoke great english (which, as you can already tell from my taxi fiasco, is pretty important to me this early on in the trip!) I was able to leave my bags at the hostel while I went out to explore the city...
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