back from the beach

so, i bought a ticket on tuesday to pichilemu, which is a 3 hr bus ride to the southwest of santiago. my guide book told me it had a charming victorian feel and hosted the first casino in chile. it failed to mention that the only victorian building is the casino, which is currently being restored. there are about a million little cabins and hotels to stay in once you get there, and i had researched cabañas hecmar, which were about six blocks out of town. the best thing about it was, though, no matter where you walked you weren't more than 3 blocks away from the beach. and what a beach! the sand was dark which kept my feet warm during the cloudy weather, and the swells were some of the biggest ive ever seen. apparently it's the surf capital of the sixth region, and i understand why.
i met my friend gina in pucón. she's from chicago and is studying in concepción. i messaged her to see if she was interested, and we met up in pichilemu on friday. we mostly walked around the town, sat on the beach, took a few pictures and went grocery shopping. the cabin was awesome because it had cable and a full service kitchen, so we spent the nights making dinner and watching american movies with spanish subtitles. had the clouds gone away it would have been a perfect beach weekend, but oh well, we still had a great time. after she boarded her bus back home i made a quick (and cheap 80 cents) lunch and watched arrested development, which hasnt gone into syndication in the states yet. chile knows whats up

my favorite part of the trip was the cost. my bus ticket was $9 down and $8 back. since its still off season, the cabin was $26 dollars a night, so split it was $26 for the weekend. we ate out once, which cost $9, and the rest of the time we ate groceries which totaled about $7. i spent $3 on souvenirs, so all together it came to$62. not bad for a weekend.