 All incoming Peace Corps Volunteers, at least from in the early years of Peace Corps Brazil, stayed at the Hotel Florida located just off Rua Catete on Rua Feirreia Viana about a block from the Governor's Place. I visited it 1986 and it had not changed at all from the Peace Corps years.
Some of the old staff was still there. While I was walking around the lobby area, I was approached by one of them and asked if I were a Voluntario da Paz. When I told him I was, this fellow's face lit up and he went on and on about the "good old" days when the hotel was home to Peace Corps Volunteers. This fellow, whose name I do not recall, had been going up and down in the hotel elevator for some 20+ years. I think he was even wearing the same uniform! I visited again in 1999. The hotel had been completely renovated. If it weren't for the name out front, you could well walk by it without realizing that it was the old Hotel Florida. There is even a pool on the top floor. All of the old staff were gone, and the new staff had new uniforms! The Peace Corps office was located on Rua do Russell about a 15 minute walk from the hotel; just around the corner from the famous Hotel Gloria. The movie theater, which you passed walking to the PC office is no longer there. The Novo Mundo hotel, which you also passed on the way to the PC office, has been renovated. In 1986, I recognized the building in which the PC office had been located, but in 1999 due to the renovation of several of the buildings on Rua Russell, I couldn't be sure which building had been the PC office. Gene Whitmer MT/ES 64-67 BR15 | 
