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SPIRE Consortium Meeting

La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain

1-3 October 2008




* News




* Local contacts

Ismael Pérez-Fournon (ipf at iac.es) and Nieves Castro-Rodríguez (ncastro at iac.es)

Please, feel free to contact us about any questions you may have about hotel reservations, how to get to La Palma, trip to the Observatory, suggestions on what to visit if you are planning to stay longer in La Palma, etc.



* Agenda

October 1 and 2: SPIRE consortium meeting

See details on the consortium meeting agenda in the mail/s from Matt Griffin to the SPIRE consortium

October 3: co-Is meeting and trip to  Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos  (GTC telescope, etc.)





* Venue

The meeting will take place in the island of La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, in the hotel "H10 Taburiente Playa", located in:

Playa de Los Cancajos

E-38712 - Playa de los Cancajos - Breña Baja (La Palma)

Spain

Tel: +34-922-181277

Fax: +34-922-181285

h10.taburiente.playa@h10.es

WEB Site of the hotel


Location:

5 km from the Airport and 5 Km from Santa Cruz de la Palma

17°45'29.63"W
 28°38'57.09"N

See the location of the hotel in Google maps.




* Reservations of hotel rooms

We have made arrangements with the hotel and blocked a number of rooms for the meeting participants. Reservations have to be made before the 1st of September. After that date, the hotel does not guarantee the availability of rooms.

So, please, book your flights and hotel rooms as soon as possible.

In order to make your reservations, please download the following
hotel reservation form (WORD format, PDF format)
and send it to the hotel by FAX or e-mail:

Fax: +34-922-181285

e-mail: reservas.hta@h10.es

Persons responsible for the bookings at the hotel: Mrs. Carmen and Mrs. Inga

phone: +34-922-181277

Please, mention "Herschel/SPIRE meeting" in your reservation.

The room prices per day, per person, are:

- Bed and Breakfast, single room: 62 euros/day

- Half Board (breakfast and dinner), single room: 68 euros/day

- Bed and Breakfast, sharing a double room: 42 euros/day

- Half Board (breakfast and dinner), sharing a double room: 48 euros/day




* Information on how to get to La Palma

La Palma is one of the seven main islands of the Canary Islands, but be careful when you book your flights, it is NOT "Las Palmas de Gran Canaria", which is the capital of a different island, Gran Canaria.

The code of the La Palma airport is SPC.

To learn about La Palma you can have a look at the official Tourism Website of La Palma.

There are direct fllights to La Palma from Madrid (mainland Spain), and also from several airports in the UK and in Germany. If you cannot find a convenient direct flight to La Palma, then you will typically have to stop at the Tenerife North airport (TFN, aslo called Los Rodeos) from where there are frequent flights to La Palma (30 minutes flight), operated by Binter Canarias and Islas Airways.

Try to avoid flying to the other airport in Tenerife, the Tenerife South airport (TFS, also called Reina Sofía), since there are no flights to La Palma from Tenerife South and it is about 80 km away from the Tenerife North airport.





* Trip to the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos

We are planning a trip to the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in the same island of La Palma on Friday, October 3rd.

Details will be given later but the approximate plan is to leave hotel Taburiente Playa at 11:00 on Friday, October 3rd, after the co-Is meeting, go up to the observatory by bus (about one hour drive), visit the 10m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the MAGIC atmospheric imaging Cherenkov telescope, and the William Herschel Telescope (WHT - yes, another Herschel telescope ..), have lunch at the observatory, and return to the hotel by about 18:30.

The cost of the trip will be TBD euros (to cover the bus and the lunch).

If you are interested to join this trip, please send a mail to Ismael and Nieves (ipf at iac.es and ncastro at iac.es).




* Other social events

Welcome cocktail on Tuesday, September 30th, in the hotel at 20:00

TBD: dinner on October 2nd





* Maps and other information

- Maps of La Palma:

Map of the island (PDF)

Map of Santa Cruz de la Palma (PDF)

Map of Santa Cruz de la Palma (JPG)



- Rental cars

The airport of Santa Cruz de La Palma is only 5 km from Playa de Los Cancajos, so it is not necessary to rent a car, you can take a taxi to get to the hotel.

However, if you are planning to rent a car, we recommend CICAR cars. They have special prices for IAC staff and visitors. Mention "IAC, or Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias" when you make your reservation.