criplomats

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.

 

 

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!

I arrived in Casablanca Saturday morning, connecting via Montreal. I’m here for a work conference – we’re staying at a lovely hotel on the beach, and lucky for me, it has the most comfy beds ever – I was wiped out when we landed (Casablanca is five hours ahead of Washington). A group of us went out for dinner at a nice little French restaurant.

Today my friend Julie and I went to the Hansen mosque to see the tallest minaret in the world – it’s beautiful, right on the water. Then we went shopping at a souk and had a delicious lunch. So far I love it here!

I boarded a State Department bus last Sunday afternoon to go for a week of counter-threat training outside of DC (affectionately known as “crash-bang”). It was a great week refreshing a lot of skills I hope I never have to use. The training was fun and effective – all very hands on and the instructors are real pros. They also have a great sense of humor which helps keep things in perspective.

The best thing about the class was meeting a lot of new folks who were my classmates. Al, who runs disaster recovery around the world for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, who’s been at virtually every natural disaster you can name. Vince who has his hand in every new embassy built overseas and also has a colorful personal history growing up in Brooklyn back in the day. Mark who works for NASA, who’ll be speaking to our astronauts on their way to the international space station later this week. We had a really good group of folks!

I got back Friday evening, in time to put my feet up and relax a bit. John made us reservations for dinner last night at the Blue Duck Tavern, and we had a delicious meal. Amazingly, John recognized our waiter Shankar, who used to wait on us ten years ago when we frequented Harry’s in Clarendon – he and his cousin Ram (both from Nepal) were two of our favorite waiters.

I also had a blast from the past this week – our shuttle driver for training used to be a shuttle driver for us at the Oakwood in Falls Church. Through him, I made contact with another shuttle driver I always had a fondness for, a guy from Ethiopia, and we had a fun chat on the phone over the weekend. The more things change…it’s fun to see familiar faces on these stints back in DC!

I was able to spend all week at home! It was pretty quiet, which was nice. We met Barb, Edward, Tammy, Scott, and Amy for happy hour after work on Friday. Barb and Edward are getting ready to go to Africa – how exciting! Afterward, John and I stopped by Aperto’s for dinner – they have the most wonderful seafood stew that really hit the spot!

Saturday I worked all day – mostly on my employee evaluation. It’s always an exercise in stress management! Before going to work, though, I stopped to see the Japanese magnolias – John said I simply had to see this park, and I am glad I did!