COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop on Planetary Science

July 23 – August 3, 2007
Montevideo, Uruguay

Last announcement

In this last announcement we present some practical information for the participants.

ARRIVAL

There are 3 possible entrance to Montevideo:

• The airport (Aeropuerto Internacional de Carrasco - http://www.aic.com.uy/). The airport is 20 km east of Montevideo.
• The Bus terminal (Terminal Tres Cruces - http://www.trescruces.com.uy/). It is 2km from downtown and pretty close to the hotel.
• The harbor (Terminal de Buquebus - http://www.buquebus.com/cache/HomeURY.html). It is in the old part of the city.

From the Airport to the hotel you can take:

• a taxi. It should cost ~ U$S 16 (pesos uruguayos $ 400).
• a bus to the bus stop close to Terminal Tres Cruces; and, a from outside the terminal, you can take a regular taxi or another bus to the hotel.

The distance from Terminal Tres Cruces to the hotel is less than 1000m. The Terminal and the hotel are along the same street: Bulevar Artigas. From the terminal to the hotel you can take
• a taxi. It should cost ~$ 70 (pesos uruguayos).
• a bus. There are many buses going along Bulevar Artigas towards the north direction. You should ask for one bus that passes by “Canal 5” (the official TV Channel). The bus ticket is $ 15.5

The harbor is in the old part of the city, west from downtown. It is ~4 km from the hotel. The easiest way to go from Buquebus terminal to the hotel is to take a taxi. It should cost ~$ 150 (pesos uruguayos). You can do it by bus, but you need to get out of the harbor and ask around for the bus stops; something that I should not recommend if it is the first time that you are in Montevideo.

EXCHANGE

The official currency in Uruguay is Pesos ($). The exchange rate at present with the most common currencies used in the region is:

Currency Buy Sell

Dollar
23.20 24.70
 

Real Brazil
11.10 12.10
 

Peso Argentina
7.30 8.30
 

Euro
31.41 34.52



You can exchange at the airport, the bus or Buquebus terminal as well as in many of the exchange offices that you will find in the city, mainly downtown. If you exchange a large amount you may get a better rate, especially in the exchange offices outside the terminals.

HOTEL

All the participants will be accommodated at the Hotel Kolping. Kolping Foundation is a catholic international organization that provides professional education. It has in Latin America many School-Hotels where young people learn about running a hotel and gastronomy.
The Hotel-Escuela Kolping in Montevideo is a simple but very comfortable environment. We will occupy almost all the rooms in the hotel and you will have places to meet. The Hotel provides Wi-Fi connection in the building.
We have already booked double rooms for all. You will share a room with one colleague. The rooms are available from Sunday July 22 to Saturday August 4.

The address is:
Hotel Escuela de Kolping Uruguay
Bulevar Artigas 2714 – C.P. 11.800
Montevideo – Uruguay
Tel.: (+598 2) 4860060 Fax: (598 2) 4816866
http://www.kolping.org.uy/hotel-escuela/hotel_escuela.htm

The hotel is 2 km from downtown, along one of the main streets of the city (Boulevard Artigas). It is one block from a big TV tower of the official TV channel (Canal 5). Unfortunately there are not many shops or restaurants close to the hotel. Breakfast and dinner will be provided at the hotel.

To find the address in an online map, go to:
http://www.mapred.com/es/a2.asp?vista=MDCA&pais=Uruguay
 

Enter the following words in the corresponding boxes:
Calle: Boulevard Artigas
Número: 2714
Localidad: Montevideo
País: Uruguay
Ciudad: Montevideo

WORKSHOP VENUE

All the academic activities of the Workshop will be held in the Facultad de Ciencias (http://www.fcien.edu.uy/). The building of the faculty is quite new, surrounded by a large green area. It is in the eastern part of the city, midway between the airport and downtown. It is 6 km from downtown Montevideo and 4 km from the hotel. It is located in a popular area. Although Montevideo is one of the safest big cities in Latin America, we do not recommend walking in the area nearby the Faculty.
We have two rooms allocated for the Workshop: one for the lectures and one for the PC-lab. You will have access to Wi-Fi connection close to these rooms.

Those of you that already informed us that you have a notebook, please bring them to the Workshop.

Close to the seminar rooms there is a canteen where we will have lunch and the coffee breaks (all included for the participants).




The address is:
Facultad de Ciencias
Iguá 4225 esquina Mataojo – Malvín Norte
Montevideo
Tel: +598-2-525 86 18 to 21 (Instituto de Física: +598-2-525 86 24 to 26)
Fax: +598-2-525 05 80

To find the address in an online map, go to:
http://www.mapred.com/es/a2.asp?vista=MDCA&pais=Uruguay
 

Enter the following words in the corresponding boxes:
Calle: Calle Igua
Número: 4225
Esquina: Mataojo
Localidad: Montevideo
País: Uruguay
Ciudad: Montevideo

TRANSPORTATION

There will be a coach from the Hotel to the Faculty in the morning and back to the Hotel at 18:00.
There is not a public direct bus from the Hotel to the Faculty. We will provide further information on which public buses you can take. A taxi should cost <$100. Taxidrivers are quite reliable, but check that they use the taximeter.

WEATHER

We are experiencing a pretty cold winter, with Min. Temp. ~ 0 - +5 ºC and Max. Temp. ~ +10 - +18 ºC. Winter in Uruguay is generally wet. It may rain a few days during the Workshop, but if you are lucky to have a sunny day you will feel like spring-time. Please, bring a winter jacket and a few thick sweaters and socks. For those of you that will participate in the week-end excursion to the ranch, I advice you that it may be very cold during the night.

PROGRAMME

You will find the final version of the Programme, here. Do not worry to nicely print it in colours, because you will have it with the materials.

PRESENTATIONS & MATERIALS

There will be PC and video projector for your presentations. We plan to provide the students with a CD with all the presentations at the end of the Workshop, as well as with copies of tutorials or articles provided by the lecturers.
There will be a PC lab with ~30 PCs. The PCs will have Linux system, IRAF and a temporary license of IDL. If you plan to use some other soft, please let us know in advance to install it in the computers. All the PCs will have internet connection. We will share the 2Mbits bandwidth with the rest of the Faculty, but we expect that it would be enough to have access to the data bases. Our University is part of the Latin-American consortium of universities that have connections to Internet 2 (RedCLARA - http://www.redclara.net/).


OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

We are planning a few outreach activities for undergraduate students and high-school teachers. Uruguay has a full year of Astronomy in the 4th year of the High School (age 15), therefore there are plenty of teachers teaching Astronomy in the country.
The list of public lectures is at the end of this text. We will provide translation for the audience.

SOCIAL EVENTS

We are planning 3 social events. The participation in these events is free for all the participants.

Monday 23, July - 20hs – Opening Dinner

Saturday 28 and Sunday 29, July – Visit to a tourist ranch and to Punta del Este. Departure at noon from the Faculty, lunch on the way and arrival at ~16hs to the ranch. Snack and Barbecue at the ranch. We stay overnight in the ranch. There is not electrical power in the ranch. Do not bring your laptop !!
At Mid-morning we depart to Punta del Este (beach and tourist resort). Lunch in Punta del Este. Snack in Piriápolis (another beach) and back to the hotel late in the afternoon.

Thursday 2, August - 20hs – Closing Dinner



If you have any further question please contact
Gonzalo Tancredi (Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay), Chairman of the SOC
e.mail: gonzalo@fisica.edu.uy
Cellphone: 099 927 446 (from abroad +598-99-927 446)

            
Scientific Organizing Committee:

Gonzalo Tancredi (Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay), Chairman
Peter Willmore (University of Birmingham, UK - COSPAR)
Hans Haubold (UN/OOSA, Austria)
Mike A’Hearn (University of Maryland, NASA, USA)
Joe Zender (ESA/ESTEC, The Netherlands)
Makoto Yoshikawa (JAXA, Japan)
Antonio Bertachini, (INPE, Brazil)
Marcos Machado (CONAE, Argentina)
Daniela Lazzaro (Observatorio Nacional, Brazil)
Adrian Brunini (FCAGLP, La Plata, Argentina)
Julio Fernández (Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay)
Tabaré Gallardo (Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay)
 

Local Organizing Committee:

Gonzalo Tancredi (Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay), Chairman
Tabaré Gallardo (Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay)
Santiago Roland (Observatorio Astronómico Los Molinos, Uruguay)
Ricardo Gil-Hutton (CASLEO, Argentina) – IRAF advisor
Fernando Roig (Observatorio Nacional, Brazil) – IDL advisor