Thanks for the positivity guys! Things are looking like they might work out ok and gradually getting everything sorted.

We had a chilled night in the hostel bar last night and got speaking to a few interesting people. A girl in our dorm has just arrived from England and is here as part of her History and Hispanics degree doing a placement with a human rights organisation looking into the slaughter of 100,000s of Peruvians in the villages in the 1990s when a Maoist movement was set up to rebel against the government and as a result the Peruvian government, with US funding, slaughtered them all and then slaughtered random villages full of people they accused of aiding or supporting the Maoist rebels. This has apparently happened all over South America in the last couple of decades, but has never been reported nationally and so the aim of their work is to make testmonies and evidence what occurred so it can be revealled and recorded in history. One of her jobs is to go and photograph the corpses that still lay in mass graves to try and get them identified and buried properly. She also filled me in on the truths of General Franco! We were also joined by an American girl who discussed her disillusionment with American politics, hence her desire to escape, for example the unaffordable healthcare and education system. On a lighter note, the one lad in our dorm had got drunk the previous night and ended up going home with two Peruvian transexuals!

Today, the nice manager once again arranged and paid for a taxi to the embassy (he is letting us stay here for free until it is all sorted). I picked up my passport and then we hopped in a taxi back to the Peruvian Immigration Centre. Harriet waited outside and I went to try and navigate what can only be described as chaos. None of the staff spoke English and there was rooms and desks and forms and stuff everywhere. I latched on to two Hermans who were in the same boat as me and then an English lad latched on to us, he also had a temporary passport after his was stolen on bus journey. Together we managed to get the right forms filled in and go to the numerous different desks we needed, etc. It was interesting chatting to the lad as he is now coming to the end of his trip and so he gave me some tips and stuff, plus its nice to know that im not the only one and he had had to come all the way from north Peru to get his sorted so we were lucky to still be in Lima when mine was stolen. Harriet come in and managed to find us, as it did take a while. Pleased to report that I can now leave the country and, more importantly, Harriets blisters are a lot better now she was wearing sensible shoes and I didnt walk her as far. We left the immigration centre and stopped for lunch/tea at a vegetarian resturant; the best meal I have ever had! 3 courses and a drink for less than 2 pounds! Plus it was all natural, hippy type foods! Loads of veg and quinoa!!!! And green tea! I dont think I convinced Harriet, she politely picked at it, but wont be going back. Stopped at supermarket for water and fruit, still no hairbrush!!!! Got my card ordered and its being delivered by courier service to the hostel, at a cost of 50pound, but hopefully it wont take too long to arrive and we can move on!