We drove from Concepción past a slew of towns on the coast—Penco, Tomé, Dichato—before reaching the entrance to Pingueral, a residential community with a beach. The beach used to be closed to the public, but due to the enforcement of some law (requiring all beaches to be open to everyone), the general public can now visit Pingueral. To get there, you need a car (or really good walking shoes), and you have to drive through a check-in point before entering the neighborhood. Once you’re in, you take a nice little drive through lots of well-manicured houses (without gates!) before arriving at the beach, which is laden with tiki umbrellas (is that what they’re called? the umbrellas with straw roofs?). It’s a small beach, but really nice. We walked around (too chilly to swim), took pictures, sat and talked, and enjoyed the tremendous waves crashing onto the shore (while Paulina’s mom worried about the little kids who were too close to the water).
Before heading out from Pingueral, we drove through the whole subdivision, house-watching. I kind of felt like it was Christmastime and we were going out to see the lights, except that it was daytime, and November.
We wrapped up our day with some ice cream in Tomé, a photo shoot at an overlook, and onces at Paulina’s house. A lovely day.
Tomorrow, I plan to be under the ocean for awhile. More news on that at a later date.
Love and undertows,
Tiernan
P.S. When we stopped in Tomé, there were a bunch of scooters, tricycles, etc lined up in the plaza. Apparently, someone brings them there during the weekend and rents them out so kids can play. I took a picture, but it was blurry. I took it quickly, because I didn’t want anyone to realize that I was taking a picture of big wheels.
I also took this picture in Tomé:
It might be too small to see, but what’s attached to the trunks of those trees? Birdhouses, of course. 
ahhhh!!!! the birdhouses are so cute!!
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