As to when the country as a whole might be safe enough for the casual traveler, Eikenberry -- a former three-star Army general and a veteran of the Afghan war before taking up his ambassadorship -- acknowledged, "It's going to be some time."
Still, the park's scenic charms are such that they give rise to a rarity in Afghanistan: the impulse to frolic. At lakeside, the ambassador clambered into a pale blue swan-shaped pedal-powered boat and took the country's dignified, turbaned vice president, Karim Khalili, for a spin.
Band-e-Amir is relatively inaccessible; getting here requires a bumpy 10-hour road trip through two mountain ranges from the capital, Kabul, about 110 miles to the east. A U.S.-funded road project is expected to eventually shorten that journey to three hours.
Some, fearing for the area's fragile ecosystem, would be happy to see it remain off the beaten path.
Marnie Gustavson, an American who runs a nonprofit organization in Kabul that works with disadvantaged Afghans, recalled visiting the lakes as a child in the 1960s with her parents, who were development workers. She described bathing in the crystalline lakes after a long, dusty journey as "magical."
"Some tourist development is good, because it will help the local people and the local economy," she said. "Just not too much of it."
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laura.king@latimes.com
