GUANABARA BAY

 
BEAUTIFUL, PICTURESQUE AND POLLUTED

Ilha da Boa Viagem -- Island of Good Travel/Safe Voyage -- is much smaller than, but pound-for-pound almost as beautiful as the famed Sugar Loaf.

Home of both a battery that used to protect Guanabara Bay and the Capela de Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem, it is the stuff of dreams perched atop the blue waters.

A bridge links it to Niteroi on the mainland.

Though our Portuguese is pretty lousy, we understood a sign we saw in late January to say the buildings are being restored for visitors.

It is about a five minute walk downhill from the Museum of Contemporary Art -- the space ship designed by the late Brazilian modernist master Oscar Nieymeyer.

LARGO DO BOTICARIO

(APOTHECARY'S SQUARE)

During its "golden age", the Largo do Boticário became filled with huge houses owned by well-known figures in Brazilian society and foreigners attracted by the parties and social events held by the neighborhood's illustrious residents.

Currently, however, the once-decadent area has fallen into decay. Between 2006 and 2008, one of the houses was taken over by a group of homeless people.

The Largo do Boticário is one of the few places in the city from which one can see the Rio Carioca. 

Near the square, several other historic sites in the Cosme Velho neighborhood can be found, including the Solar de Abacaxis house and the Corcovado Railway.

In the 1970s, the square was featured in a scene in the movie Moonraker.

-- Courtesy, Wikipedia