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The 'Annex
(photos)' across the street from the Hotel Florida has also been remodeled, but I didn't inquire to see if the hotel was still using it. I think you would agree that a collection of PC 'stories about the annex' would make a great read. In the late 60's, I remember three UK guys staying there for several days. They were going home after serving two years in the Falkland Islands. One of the guys had a tape of a new band called 'Cream' with this great lead guitarist called Eric Clapton. It was all new to me and I thought quite 'cool'.
On another occasion when I was staying at the Annex, I was in the main hotel bar late one night with some fellow PCV's when Janis Joplin announced her entrance by shouting, "Does anybody speak English and want to f***ing party!?" She had apparently heard that North Americans stayed at the Hotel Florida and wanted some 'friends' for that night. I later learned in one of the biographies written about her career that she had come to Rio at a very low point in her personal life and was hoping for some rest and chance to 'refocus' her career. There was also the unconfirmed rumor in the late 1960's that both the Brazilian and United States authorities had 'bugged' the Annex because the Brazilians thought we were all 'American spies' and the US Embassy thought we were 'anti-war radicals'. Oh, those were the days, viu!
Gary Duncan ES 67-70
Washington, D.C
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