So my bag got stolen on our first whole night in Peru. I have lost my passport, money, bank cards, ipod, camera, yellow fever certificate, all my books and journal. But we are ok! Thankfully I{d left my iphone at the hostel charging. We were at a little resturant having dinner and my bag was by my feet, but some guy come and stole it. I am kicking myself for being so stupid and I cant really believe it has happened! I also realise the total limitations of my Spanish! We come back to the hostel last night and the manager was great; he took me to somewhere to call and cancel my cards (and he paid for this), he took us to the resturant to find out more and get them to check CCTV. Then he took us to the Police and I reported it and got an incident form. He advised us to go the British Embassy this morning and he arranged and paid for a taxi to take us there at 8.30am today. So our plan today was to be moving on to Ica today but we are now stuck here! The British Embarassy were horrible! I was told they could give me a temporary passport but you can only go to 5 countries on it and they need to know the order, etc. Plus, she said that I need passport photos and 95pounds. I explained that I literally had nothing and was backpacking and had no idea where to get photos, but she circled somewhere on a map and told me to go. We managed to find the photo place but it was shut! Several of the shops were still shut so we decided to wait and see if it opened; harriet treated me to a smoothie in a cafe. Luckily the shop did open so I got my photos although I had to wait an hour for them and so we walked to the sea (bit weird having such a huge city and business district on the sea). I went back to the Embassy and was told to come back in 3 hours! We mooched a bit more and poor Harriet got blisters. We then had lunch, I had tofu and vegetables which was nice. It is horrible not having any money and I feel lost without pens and paper and a brush (we could not find any shops that sell them!). I have lost my spanish phrase books and my lonely planet and so it is hard to make plans and even harder to try and converse (it is true that no one here speaks english!). Luckily, Harriet has subbed me the money for my temporary passport. I went back at 3 and had to wait an hour and then they took my forms and said to go back tomorrow at 11 to pick it up. I then need to go on to the Peru Immigration authorities and sort out a visa, as mine was stolen. That also costs more money and we are having to get taxis across the city which is not cheap, plus if I complete the trip I will need two more temporary passports and I now have to go out and buy all new stuff when I have no money. It also means we are stuck in Lima until I can get a new card sent and means that we now cant have the nice, flexible trip around that we had planned due to the temporary passport, when I get to Argentina I need to go to the British Embassy there and get another one and I will have to do the same later in the trip, so at this rate my costs are doubling! I have no idea where to start with insurance. I am trying to be positive but I am pretty devasted and have certainly learnt lessons the hard way!

In other news, before last nights drama we had booked another hostel in the centre and got a taxi there about 10am. The new hostel is a huge old mansion and so has a lot of character and is well equipped, as well as being in a good location. We checked in and then spent the day exploring Lima, you would be impressed by my navigational skills; only a couple of times did we get lost and I always found our way back! It is a huge city of 10million people and varies from looking very run down to very upmarket and historical. We walked to the bus station and found out about buses to Ica and then walked around a nice park and ate some of our goods from the plane. Then we explored the old part of the city which was very beautiful with the cathedrals, musuems and Presidents residence, etc. We were too tight to pay for the musuems. The traffic is crazy and there are people everywhere selling sweets and bread snacks and fruit, etc, by the side of the road or offering to shine shoes and stuff, but they are not pushy and you dont really get beggars. I think I walked poor Harriets legs off! I was glad we had seen Lima but its certainly nothing special and so I was looking forward to moving on.

I hope you are all well!