The hike from hell and other things that might not be my favorite

First I will start out with my dislikes. Get ready because there is a lot. Don't get me wrong, Peru is great, these are just things I have noticed over the last two weeks.

Traffic: It is terrifying. If someone wants to get into the space you are in, they will do it. You see people all over that have little dents on their cars, thats because people will just hit you. I've seen it too many times already. Its something that really scares me, so lately I will just try and concentrate on anything else.

Speed bumps: Speed bumps here are guidelines. Same goes with Stop signs. Have you heard the phrase "no cop, no stop"? Well it doesn't matter if a cop is there or not, they just don't stop. They like to go like 50 over speed bumps too. I was riding in the back with my host sister Daniela the other day while her dad was driving. He flew over them so fast that I hit my head on the ceiling while wearing my seatbelt.

Chifa: That is Chinese food here. It is so hard to order. Usually people can't pronounce the words correctly in English, much less another language. We had the hardest time at our Chifa restaurant that I ended up ordering fried shrimp (not chinese at all).

Water pressure: If you want a nice shower with high water pressure, forget it. I don't know what the hotels look like but my shower at home is weak. Its like when you are just turning off the hose at home and a little bit trickles out, but in the shower. But the sink has tons!

Air conditioning: I don't think I have been in a place yet that has air conditioning. My house definitely doesn't because my room is a constant hot box. I almost always have the fan on full blast. Even restaurants have their windows open for cool air.

Beaches: They are so rocky around our area. You have to go pretty south to find one that won't cut your feet up. I was pretty disappointed to find that out but oh well right?

Separate checks: Don't even think about getting your food or drinks on a different check than your friends. We've gone out to eat a lot and discovered no place gives you your own check. This is so frustrating. Almost always, someone gets ripped on money. The only people who may do that, is the ones who speak a little english.

Okay my rant is over. Let's talk about the hike I went on to Matucana to see the Cataratas or waterfalls!

Our professor Rob is awesome. His English is great but he hardly uses it with our class. For one of our classes, we were going on a hike that was about 2 hours away. We got up on Friday morning to get on the bus by 8am. Our breaks over heated a few times because we were going up rather than down in elevation. I really do not know what time we got there, but we eventually did make it to the town of Matucana. We then started a climb up to the waterfalls. Little did I know that I was going to die on the way to the top. Rob (our professor) and I had to take so many breaks. I told people to just leave me because I was embarrassed at how out of shape I was.2ish hours later we made it to the waterfalls. It was so beautiful there. Rob and Ivan were trying to make a fire to grill our hamburgers. Eventually I took over and became grill master. We took tons of pictures next to the waterfalls (Mariah actually went under it). We got followed around by these stray dogs that people ended up naming. After a few hours, we came back down. It was so much easier going down than up. The dogs even came with and scared us every time they got close to the edge. We finally got home and everyone basically went straight to sleep. It was an awesome trip. I really enjoyed it after I got there not during! I am going to try and spread my money around enough to be able to do more of that kind of thing.

One thing I wish I could do here is lay in a room that has air. My bed isn't the most comfortable but the worst thing is waking up in sweat almost every morning. All in all, it's been great and I can't wait for spring break!

They wanted me to own them...

This shake tasted like straight nutella but it made a great picture!

You guys will have to get used to seeing pictures of me with animals. Can't stop won't stop. 

This picture is Daniela (my host sister) and we are at the country club that I get to go see every sunday!