Smiley Nomad

After months of planning the big day arrived, me and my friend from school days Naveen were finally on our way to South America! Tan dropped us at the airport, unfortunately he wont be able to join this trip :( Don't worry Tan... there are more trips to come :) We got on the plane 28th September 1pm and got down in Santiago 28th September 1.15pm, how cool is that :), a 15minute flight? well no way, it was over 14h! We were hoping to see a glimpse of Antarctica on our way to Santiago, but by the time we were going closer to the icy continent, it was pitch black dark outside. As we came out of the airport, our driver, Marie was waiting to take us to the hotel. On our way Marie gave us a few survival tips on South America, don't take your wallet out in public unless it is really necessary, take only the money enough to survive the day with you, dont take your phone in hand, keep it in the pocket always, carry your back pack not on the back but chest. Phew where...

I was still finding it difficult to adjust to time and after a tiring day in Montreal and a five hour train ride I still woke up around 6 o'clock in the morning. My apartment was located centrally and all the important attractions were within easy reach from there. I could see the Fairmont Royal York hotel from my balcony, place where the royal family stays when they visit Toronto. I decided to kick my day off with a stroll down the shores of the Ontario lake. The mighty Ontario lake was just laying lazily with a ferry or a private boat disturbing it every now and then. Several people were jogging down the harbour front, a girl walking her dog, a few Canadian geese searching for their breakfast and a homeless man finding shelter inside sort of a spherical concrete monument. It was quite cold for me with my hands going numb and I was wondering how these people jog this early in the morning in this cold weather. I walked down to the ferry terminal, checked out the ferry...

With the jet lag I couldn't sleep well and woke up around 5am. Lakmali's mother had prepared a huge jug of tea, after having that we had a full Sri Lankan breakfast, rice & curry and hoppers. After a lot of coaxing the kid woke up, what a cute boy my friend's got! I had brought a stuffed Kangaroo and  Koala for him from Australia, I felt I should have brought more, but as I travel light, that's all I could bring. Lakmali had to attend a mandatory ultrasound course and I joined Aruna to drop her at the railway station to the city. As we went out, the place was very cold, 0 celcius and there were icicles hanging from the trees, I borrowed one of Aruna's jackets, I should have prepared better for this trip! On our way it started to snow, for the first time I saw snowing! It was amazing... We dropped Lakmali at the railway station and came back home to pick the kid and drop him off at the day care. Aruna has kindly taken half day to show me around Montreal, w...