How to Tour the World (for Free!) in Six Hours
Dancers performing outside the Côte d’Ivoire Embassy. (Photo: Joe Newman - CosmicSmudge.com)
The news spread quickly, aided by a band of unprompted ambassadors in colorful straw hats.
“Nicaragua is serving beer — and rum. Lots of rum,” one of them said with a deep smile.
“Where’s Nicaragua?” I asked, looking down at my folded paper map for about the 14th time.
“Just down the street, about a 10-minute walk from here,” one of the girls replied as she adjusted the pink and yellow scarf tied around her neck.
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People waiting outside the Indonesian Embassy. (Photo: Ted Eytan/Flickr)
The happy group was just a fragment of the estimated 30,000 people who took part in the annual Around the World embassy tour in Washington, D.C., this year.
A one-of-a-kind event, the celebration is a sort of international open house, in which more than 40 different countries welcome the general public into their embassies and consulates. In other words, it’s the only way you could visit Bangladesh, Botswana, and Brazil in a single day.
On the surface, the event is an opportunity for the embassies to showcase their countries’ unique culture and cuisine. In practice, however, the day often serves more commercial and political purposes.
With a median income of about $90,000, D.C.-area residents are some of the highest paid in the country. That, combined with an audience of potentially influential congressional staffers and federal employees, makes the embassy tour something of a one-day public relations blitz, as each country competes to woo would-be tourists and overcome sometimes-negative perceptions.
The Embassy of Nicaragua plied people with its local rum. (Photo: Flor de Caña Rum/Instagram)
Perhaps none was more obvious in this regard than Venezuela. As people shuffled up and down Massachusetts Avenue — a stretch of road commonly dubbed “embassy row” for its dense collection of foreign outposts — colorful balloons swayed high in the breeze, all imprinted with the phrase “#Venezuela is Hope.”
When I finally set foot on Venezuelan soil, the embassy’s minister counselor for political affairs was more than happy to explain the campaign. Adorned in a distinctive dark gray Mao suit, Carlos Ron said the slogan was a direct response to President Obama’s recent executive order officially declaring his home country a national security threat.
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“We believe [the executive order] was billed on false pretenses. We have accomplished so many things for social inclusion and deepening democracy in the last 16 years. We think we’ve been a hope for other people…” Ron said, standing next to a 5-foot-wide pop-up banner that unambiguously read, “Venezuela is Not a Threat.”
Carpathia Folk Dance Ensemble performing at the Embassy of Romania. (Photo: Victoria Pickering/Flickr)
Others were a little less obvious about their intentions. Bolivia eschewed the long lines and brought the party to its front yard, where nationals performed traditional dances, complete with men dressed as angels and girls in bright sequenced dresses. When the crowd was welcomed inside for more performances and Bolivian cuisine, embassy staff ensured every visitor was handed a bumper sticker that read, “Mar Para Bolivia” or “Sea for Bolivia” — a reference to the landlocked country’s diplomatic efforts to regain access to the Pacific Ocean, which it lost in a war with neighboring Chile way back in 1883.
After ricocheting from Japan to Belize to South Korea, we made our way to the Embassy of Mozambique. Greeted by a trio of women dancing and laughing in front of a somber portrait of the country’s recently elected president, I got the feeling this was how the embassy staff spent their lunch breaks.
There was one issue, though, that Mozambique wanted to address right off the bat. In the embassy’s front room hung two poster boards. The one on the left showed the country’s iconic flag, and the other displayed a nine-point explanation of the flag’s meaning. After describing the significance of the flag’s five colors, the poster addressed the obvious question: Why the gun?
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Mozambique has the rare distinction of being the only country in the world to showcase a modern rifle on its flag — an AK-47, in fact, complete with a silhouetted bayonet. At the bottom of the explanation, the bulleted list simply and straightforwardly stated that the rifle symbolized the country’s defense.
If you need something to soak up all that rum, there are plenty of samples of local foods. Who knew food from Benin was so tasty?! (Photo: Mr.TinDC/Flickr)
When asked what the flag meant to him, Eduardo Zaqueu, the embassy’s minister counselor, replied, “Independence and hospitality.” While an AK-47 didn’t strike me as all that hospitable, I couldn’t fault the friendly vibes. As I walked down the hallway leading back outside, the women behind me were busy wrapping their arms around a red-headed teenage boy, swaying in unison to the music.
After hitting nine different countries in about six hours, the day was just about over. A refreshing drink at the Embassy of Nicaragua sounded like the perfect way to end to our mini world tour. Once inside, though, we learned we had arrived a little too late.
“You guys should have got here sooner!” a middle-aged woman chirped at us, as I stared sadly at a dozen or so bone-dry bottles of Nicaragua’s famous Flor de Caña rum. “It was flowing all day long!”
If you live in the D.C.-area and want to get in on the fun, you haven’t missed your chance! The Around the World embassy tour is just one program in the monthlong series of Passport DC events.
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