$250 for a train ticket?!

No no, don't worry. Stuff's not that expensive here... For whatever reason, the Chilean peso is denoted by a dollar sign, $. 'Proper' dollars are written "US$". One thousand pesos is, conveniently, almost exactly one pound, or 60 cents. Certainly makes price conversions a bit easier, although we're both so used to working in US dollars now that it's a bit confusing going back to pounds! We convert stuff from pesos into pounds into dollars now.