U.S. ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry (L) and Afghan Minister of Urban Development Mohammad Yosouf Pashtun ride in a paddle boat on the Band-e-Amir lake, in Bamiyan province about 310 km (193 miles) northwest of Kabul June 18, 2009. Afghanistan declared Band-e-Amir in April 2009 as its first conservation area. For decades, the area deteriorated along with so much else in a country consumed by war, but today the area is far from any fighting and Afghan tourists have begun to return.
REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
