3rd (last) announcement

This is the 3rd and last announcement of the Evolving Universe Workshop to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 15-19, 2011.

LAST UPDATE 08/11

NEWNEWNEW Arrival in Rio (based on first participants' experience)
After you get your luggage and go through customs, try to find Taxi Booth for AEROTAXI. They have the rates posted on the wall, and to Ipanema it was R$47,00 plus $1,60 for luggage. You shouldn't pay anymore for the taxi to Ipanema than that. They will give you the ticket at the taxi booth telling the driver where and the rate of the fare, then you just walk out to where the YELLOW AeroTaxi's are (which is beyond the 1st road where people are being dropped off). You pay the driver when you arrive. You do not need to tip, but you can if you were particularly happy with the service.

Please, check if your name is spelled correctly and your affiliation is right: http://evolvinguniverse-pucrio.blogspot.com/2011/04/participants.html

If you have not provided us with the TITLE OF YOUR TALK please, do that as soon as possible and we will update the program. A link to the latest version of the program is
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23735554/program_puc_rio_final.pdf

NEW VERSION (FINAL) OF THE PROGRAM AS OF 08/11.

- REGISTRATION FEE: one of the funding agencies only granted half of what we were expecting to receive and the dollar is really low now. We will have to charge R$250 reais (~US$160) as registration fee to cover local expenses, conference dinner, coffee breaks. We can only take dollars or reais - no credit cards.

Students and post-doctoral fellows will not pay registration.

- POSTERS

SIZE (width = 1meter, length = your choice).

All posters presenters will have 2 (TWO) minutes to advertise their work on the first day of the conference (see program). We request everyone to send it in advance to Rafael Eufrasio who will be coordinating this: rafael.t.eufrasio (at) nasa.gov OR to bring their poster advertisement in a USB drive, but only if not able to email Rafael in advance.

- EXCURSION: It seems that most of the people would like to go on an excursion to the Tijuca Forest on Wednesday afternoon, so we will try to arrange that. Everyone will pay for their own transportation and meals. Professor Schweitzer (PUC-Rio) has also volunteered to organize a hike to Pedra Bonita on Saturday morning. We will coordinate during the meeting depending on how many are interested.
NEWNEWNEW We are going to Pedra Bonita on Wednesday located at Tijuca Forest. We have arranged with a bus with 42 seats (25 reais for the bus and picnic lunch). We will have a sign-up sheet at the registration desk. We will only be able to take the first 42 interested in going. The others will need to take public transportation. We will provide information on that too. The Bus will leave PUC around noon and will return around 5pm.

- CONFERENCE DINNER

August 17th, Wednesday, at 20h (8pm).

Conference dinner will be at Restaurant A Mineira http://www.restauranteamineira.com.br/humaita/ Buffet with a variety of dishes including vegetarian options. Rua Visconde de Silva 152 Humaitá.

Dinner will cost 33 reais per person (drinks are NOT included) and one pays at the restaurant. If you were waived the registration fee, we will be charged 33 reais for dinner at the restaurant. Spouses and guests are welcome for the same rate, but should let us know in advance. We will have sign-up sheets at the registration desk.

Transportation to the restaurant will not be provided, but we will coordinate that and give instructions during the meeting.

Plans regarding the conference dinner might still change. We will confirm it during registration. NEWNEWNEW We have made reservations!!

- LUNCH BREAKS

Lunches will not be provided. We have a relatively long lunch break every day (2h30m). We encourage participants to network during lunch and always invite participants from other institutions to enjoy the breaks with them. PUC campus and surrounding area have many choices of restaurants. Leblon beach is only a short ride and has many options too.

- PUC ADDRESS and MAP

PUC-Rio address: Rua Marques de São Vicente, 225 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 22451-041, Brazil (google-map it for more information). The auditorium is Padre Anchieta. On PUC-Rio's campus there are three restaurants, 5 coffee-shops, 1 pizza-parlor; a bookstore and an office supply store; many copy centers; branches of three banks, (Itaú, ABN AMRO Real and Santander Banespa); a post office; a newsstand and automated teller machines.

The workshop will take place at Pe Anchieta Auditorium. We are attaching a campus map to this email, and you can also find it at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23735554/mapa_PUC.pdf

- INCAI MEETING ON FRIDAY

The Board of the International Network of Catholic Astronomical Institutions and invited guests will meet on Friday during lunch to discuss next meeting and future plans. If you paid registration, lunch is included. Possible venue is Churrascaria Porcao in Ipanema (to be confirmed).

- GENERAL INFORMATION

I wrote a blog for the IAU in 2009 that might have some useful and general information (currency, credit card, atms, transportation, temperature, food, dress code, crime, etc). But the exchange rate is VERY different now, have that in mind. http://goingtoiaurio.blogspot.com/

If you know that you are not going to be able to attend the meeting, please, cancel your registration now since we still have a waiting list.

Thanks and see you in Rio!

Duilia de Mello

SOC-chair