In Buenos Aires, the biggest crowds gathered to watch the torch pass the city's obelisk monument. Enthusiastic on-lookers taking pictures with their cellphone cameras outnumbered activists protesting China's rule of Tibet.
"We're really happy to have pulled it off," a relieved Francisco Irrarrazabal, the city's deputy sports secretary, said as the torch relay wrapped up.
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Police kept small groups of pro and anti-China protesters apart where they gathered in front of Argentina's pink presidential palace and at other points along the 8.5-mile (13.8-km) route.
After the first stretch through the streets of a riverside neighborhood, torch bearers carried the flame onto a shell and rowed it down the Puerto Madero docks, which are lined with expensive restaurants and bars.
Back on land, a ring of Chinese guards dressed in blue ran in formation around each torch bearer. Police on all-terrain vehicles ringed the guards and were surrounded by a motorcycle squadron.
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