*OLD* August 11th, 2005- Bringing My 'A' Game

Adventure called me this week and I answered. A thought struck me at 7 pm on this past Tuesday night, why not Uruguay? And I had no good reason not to since classes don`t start until August 16th. After dinner with a few girls I`d met down here, I took the subway out to my house, gathered a pair of pants, undergarments, three books, money, and a pillow, then caught the last subway train back into town (I literally got there one minute before the train did...they`d already shut down the ticket counter so they let me go `gratis`), arrived at the Buquebus terminal I`d passed on my night hike at 1130pm, bought a ticket to go on their ferry to Colonia, Uruguay leaving in an hour, and boarded.
As if that wasn`t enough decisionmaking on the run, once I got to Colonia at 4am, I befriended a gas attendant who gave me free coffee (it was cold and I had forgotten my coat, only shortsleeves for me) and we talked until 5am when the bus terminal opened. A short passage in my Lonely Planet guidebook about a giant hydroelectric project on the Rio Uruguay in the far northwest of the country had intrigued me, so when the bus terminal opened I bought a ticket for SALTO (the HE project is Represa Salto Grande), and left on their 5.55am bus. About eight hours later I arrived in Salto, walked into town to find that the youth hostel in Lonely Planet had closed two years ago but found another that cost less.
After putting my bag down, I went and found a place that rented motorcycles. Although I had never driven a motorcycle (a taxicita yes, but not alone) and am only 20, they gave me one (3 days for 30 dollars total). An absolutely incredible afternoon and evening was spent driving up to the Represa Salto Grande and along a rambla (riverside path) for 30km and learning how to drive a motorcycle as I went along. After I found Salto again, I watched the atlanta braves again as best I could (internet style), and went to a real bed and really slept for the first time since that crazy thought to go to Uruguay came into my head.
And now I had today to recuperate, tomorrow to drive to some thermal springs then catch the overnight bus to Montevideo to meet some girls from the program downtown under the statue of Artigas in Plaza Independencia at 9am (I have to wear a red shirt and be reading a book with one leg crossed over the other at the ankles). A word of thanks to all who`ve been writing me is necessary. All of them are read, pondered, and replied to. After all is said and done, I`m still down here and yàll are up there, and I appreciate your interest in my adventures,

Josh Bull (my motorcycle name is now Toromoto (in spanish terremoto means something))

ps All the sentences in this email start with A, thus my `A`game. An aside (A. -angelina jolie was also in Troy...and A.- have you seen Crash yet?)