criplomats

John and I made a quick trip to Arkansas this weekend to see his parents – American has a great direct flight to northwest Arkansas from Washington so it makes it really easy. We flew out Friday late afternoon and returned early this morning. We had a great time visiting – they took us to the Ozark Botanical Gardens which was lovely. Ginger and I got in a little shopping, too. Philip and Michelle had us over for yummy grilled steaks at their house last night, so we got caught up with them and their kids. And before you knew it, we were back at home in D.C.!

We had a pretty quiet week otherwise; we had dinner with our A-100 friends Kristin and Brandon Wednesday night at a good Indian place not far from our apartment. It was kind of a rainy week, but the sun’s out today!

Still no progress on my blog photos – stay tuned!

Why oh why did I change that default setting for photo uploads on my blog? Now none of my photos are showing up and I don’t know how to fix it! Note to self: don’t do that again. Until John has a chance to try to fix my problem, no more photos on the blog!

I spent the last week working in Georgetown, Guyana. While not exactly a garden spot, I enjoy going there. The Marriott where I stay is very nice and I can walk to the Embassy. I went to Marine “boot camp” workouts after work two evenings and went to an Embassy yoga class another day – lots of fun and a good workout. The consular chief had me over to his house for family dinner my last evening there and the junior officers took me out to a nice restaurant for my birthday dinner on Tuesday (happy birthday to me and thanks to everyone for the kind messages!).

We went to Doug and Val’s house last night for a fun get-together with them and Rick and Claire – we knew them in Pakistan. It was so nice to see them again and catch up!

John headed out Sunday morning, and I spent a fun afternoon with my friend Val from work. We went to the Habouss market and had lunch at the same nice spot where Julie and I ate the previous week. It was fun to have someone to pal around with after John left. She and I were on the same flight going back to DC Monday morning.

The week flew by! We had Rick and Claire over for dinner on Friday night – so nice to have good friends living here! And, before I knew it, I was on a plane heading back to Georgetown, Guyana, where I’m laying my head tonight!

John and I have had a wonderful week touring Morocco! We spent the first two nights in Marrakech, then we spent the next two nights at a wonderful little hotel in the mountains called Domaine de la Roseraie. It was so peaceful and the grounds were beautiful – lots of rose gardens, a nice walking trail, good food, and a great spa where I had a hammam treatment, a very Moroccan water bath of sorts.

Our drive out of the high Atlas Mountains was rainy and foggy but still spectacular. We ended at the Berbere Palace in Ouarzazate – they call Ouarzazate the Hollywood of Morocco because so many movies have been filmed there (as well as some “Game of Thrones” episodes). It’s sort of the gateway to the desert. We saw some of the historical sites there, namely Ait Ben Hammoud, an old Kasbah, where we walked up to the very windy top.

The next day we started our day-long drive to the Western Sahara, close to the Algiers border. It took all day, with a few stops along the way. In one small Berber village, we stopped at a carpet shop where I bought a Berber wedding blanket, something I had on my shopping list.

We finally arrived at Merzouga, where we transferred to a 4×4 truck to go out in the dunes. We stayed at a truly luxurious tent camp (electricity and indoor plumbing!) – it was so peaceful. We had one full day there (two nights) – we started the day with a camel ride to see the sunrise, and ended the day with another ride out to see the sunset – both beautiful. During the day, we had the entire camp all to ourselves, as the large group of Aussies left in the morning, and the new folks didn’t arrive until evening. It was wonderfully quiet and peaceful, and we read and played gin rummy in the shade. The weather was perfect with a nice cool breeze most of the time.

We made the 10-hour drive from the desert back to Casablanca yesterday – John flies out today and I will leave early tomorrow morning – back to the real world. I’m anxious to see Flavia – we’ve been getting emails from the pet service this week, so I know she is OK but will be happy to see us!

I’m having tech diffies with my photos, so I’ll update soon! In the meantime, here’s a link to all my photos.

Door

After a lovely day at the mosque and the souk last Sunday, our group went out to dinner with the Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs – the venue was Rick’s Place, a play on the Humphrey Bogart movie, although, of course, it was not filmed in Morocco. It was, however, a beautiful old restored building and we enjoyed it very much.

The rest of the week was filled with our conference agenda, which included a tour of the Consulate on Monday, followed by a relaxing reception on the lawn of the Consul General’s house.

Tuesday, the regional consular officers (RCOs) met for the afternoon (we’re only all together twice per year), then we did an “escape room” where you solve a series of puzzles to get out. We always have a good time together. Other nights I had dinner with friends; our last night in town, some of the RCOs walked to a nice Moroccan restaurant for dinner.

Saturday the tour guide picked me up at the hotel, and we picked up John at the airport! We drove to Marrakech – about a three hour drive – had lunch, and got settled in our hotel. We were pooped.

Today we spent touring around the city with our guide. A lot of walking, a lot of pretty architecture, good food, crazy traffic, lots of other tourists – kind of a sensory overload, but fun!

Buying bread

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