We saw a number of these trees around a plaza with their buds sprouting directly from the trunk. Apparently the flowers last only a day for the ground was littered with piles of these lovely and complex flowers.

We came across this multi-restaurant outside service that extended for several blocks.  Cool.
Here we were only about three blocks from the port, but most of our fellow passengers had no idea what the real people were doing that evening. 

On the way back to the port we passed a monastery yard with a life-sized stone sculpture of the nativity scene. 

The next day we were headed to the famous Ipanema and Copacabana Beaches...

Things were much quieter on the street--this sidewalk was bustling with people and vendors yesterday. We got to the Metro station at 6:40am, but it was closed. We had a conversation with these two characters who were hanging around the nearby outdoor market. When the Metro opened at 7am, it seemed much emptier than yesterday.

We rode to the end of the line this day--all the way to the beaches. 
The subway mosaic let us know that we had arrived.

  The mosaic pattern on the walk is different here. One half of the the street was closed and people strolled, walked their dogs, ran, or rode bikes. The vendors were getting ready for the day. The rocky mountains frame the area. And then there's the beach.

We don't normally take two trek shadow photos in one place, but how could we resist this shot? Many of the buildings next to the beach were high-rise condos or hotels, but some other more interesting buildings also are interspersed. We started at about the middle of the beach and walked out to a rock at the end of the beach--it's about 2 acres of much-climbed areas. The prickly pear cacti are in bloom and a woman on a cell phone is madly waving to her friends back on the beach.

 
This light orange amaryllis relative and the beautiful blue morning glories were some of the other flowers in bloom out on the rock. It was time to walk the few blocks across to the Copacabana Beach. A park on the way over contained this grotto formation adorned with stars and spangles and apparently its inhabitant.

At the near end of Copacabana Beach, we found a fish market and this old woman tying fishing net while a black dog lay in its soft folds.

We docked in this major container-oriented commercial area across from another Holland America ship, the Veendam (hiding amongst the containers and cranes), which we learned later had just been to the Antarctic.

We started a long walk around the city as soon as they let us off the ship. This lovely clock tower greeted us not far from the port.

Some of the buildings look distinctly European, while others are more modern. There were several buildings with tops constructed to look like ship smoke stacks. Then we came upon an upscale restored dock area, which reminded us a little of Baltimore with its red brick buildings on both sides of a water channel. The cranes were left for show.

    
A designer suspension bridge called Peunte de la Mujer--Bridge of the Woman--contrasted with the industrial restorations and square-rigged schooners. In the third photo below, you're supposed to hum the theme to 2001.  

After a few of hours of walking, we hailed a taxi back to the port. The next day we'd continue our Buenos Aires exploration...

Dean's Log Days 15-18