The bus from Mendoza arrived at Retiro bus station at 8am. We caught a taxi straight to the British embassy in Recoleta. It was Wednesday morning, 23rd January.
Our haste derived from our fear that there could well be a queue of other poor unfortunates in similar situations to ours, waiting from the early hours to have their passport applications processed. Thankfully this wasn't the case and we were the first in when the consular section's counter opened at 9am.
Once inside I had to fill out a passport application form and hand over the Mendoza police report along with two passport photos and a whopping 750 pesos in cash (about £125). The new passport would be ready to collect on Friday, just two days later. Phew.
Armed with the knowledge that we could start to make travel plans again, we booked flights with a budget airline to enable us to return to Santiago from Buenos Aires on Saturday morning. We also visited the local Qantas office, where we were told that as there were no seats that could be reserved in January or February on the Santiago - Auckland flight, we would be waitlisted. Not really knowing what this meant, we set about doing some of the things we had wanted to do in Buenos Aires but hadn't found time for last time around, and generally killed time until we could pick up my passport and return to Santiago.
Robin
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