Having spent half the night on the blower to Amex (a most painful and circuitous procedure involving calls to the UK, Germany and the US, and a final conference call between the lot of us) I managed to obtain $684-worth of pesos at the Western Union office this morning.Predictably I got the Jobsworth. Refused to listen to anything I said until I gave him a passport. I tried to explain that it´d been stolen and that Amex had arranged things so I wouldn´t have to produce it (ID numbers, Q&A things, weird remitter name etc.). I eventually persuaded him to ring them, filled in the form, and he grudgingly handed over the dosh.

Did a little light bike dismantling and retrieved my stash of emergency US$ from inside the headlight housing so I´ve been able to pay the hotel. If only I hadn´t been so lazy yesterday, and got up off my bum to replace the spare plastic inside the airbox on the bike (loads of space in there for all sorts of stuff).

Beetled off to the embassy to sort a passport. Jolly helpful and friendly, all helped by the fact that I had about my person a photocopy of the original passport, a couple of pix from the shedload I´ve been lugging around (monopolised the booth in Sainsburys for an hour one day before I left), the police crime report, and wore a BMW bike T-shirt. For, lo and behold, half the staff are bikers, and they´re fast-tracking me for no extra charge so I can collect the new passport tomorrow morning instead of next month. I´ll have to go to immigration and get it stamped, of course, otherwise they won´t let me out (not that I´d mind as I rather like it here).

New plastic will eventually wing its way to me via Don and Pauline, and Pauline´s even sorting a replacement Yellow Fever certificate for me (the doctor´s surgery doesn´t have email).