Next we go to the Botanical Gardens, which is truly huge. We only get to see a small part of it. But first, I need to use the restroom. So, I go in, and there's nobody around, so I take a photo.
Here's what it looks like.

They have rest rooms like this in several places we visit. It's not like restrooms at home - there's just this sort of hole thingie in the floor. The ladies rooms are exactly the same, Marina tells me - the only difference is the name painted on the door.

-----

Now to the rest of the botanical gardens. Here's part of the botanical institute

-----

We go down lots of paths, here's Marina near some purple flowers

-----

Here's me near some kind of evergreens.

They had lots of trees and plants that were from America - some sequoyahs and other kinds that don't grow here naturally.

-----

We get to a very large hot-house, and I mean to tell you that it was hot inside. It was filled with cactus, and they had thousands of kinds - big, small, huge, tiny, some that I have never seen before.

-----

As we make our way back near the tour bus, we see a really strange large tree - Marina tries to tell me they make bottles with it, or something like that, and I can't figure out what she's talking about. Here's the photo.

-----

Finally, one of the other people says in English, "It's a CORK tree!"
I don't think I have ever seen one of these before - it really looks weird. It feels weird, too, kind of like cork, I guess. I wanted to get my knife out and whack off a big piece of bark, but I didn't think the park officials would give my purely intellectual interest the proper respect :-)

That's all for this chapter. We have been to most of the places on our trip now, - there are only one or two chapters left.

Cya next time!

Steve.