Grand Forks Logistics
NAMMA NSERC Presentation - Revised (PowerPoint Presentation)
Hotel Information
The Project Office (ESPO) has finalized arrangements for a block of rooms at a hotel in Santa Maria for those people who are traveling to Sal Island, Cape Verde, this summer to work at the airport there.
The Hotel is the Riu Funana, located about a mile from the downtown area of Santa Maria. For your information the address and phone are:
Hotel Riu Funana
Cabocan Lote A2,A3
Santa Maria,
Isla de Sal - Cabo Verde
Phone: 238- 242-9064
Fax: 238-242-9088
The Riu is a "Club Hotel" which means that all amenities are offered in the price. There are three restaurants, five bars and a night club! They have two swimming pools and access to the beach, a gym, jacuzzi and sauna. Many sports activities are available if you have some free time; tennis and volleyball courts, windsurfing, snorkelling, scuba diving and kayaking are available.
Our rooms are air conditioned, have mini fridges, safes and satellite TV. There is wireless in the lobby and there is internet available in the lobby.
There is some information at the hotel website: www.riu.com All the information we have will be posted at the NAMMA website as it becomes available.
The price for the rooms is around 8,800 Cape Verdian Escudos per night. As of May 22, 2006, that equates to about $102 USD. The per diem rate for lodging is $109 USD. We will confirm the rate for August by the end of next week.
Please note that this hotel (like many businesses in Cape Verde ) can only accept Visa Credit Cards or CASH. That means that if you do not have a Visa card by the time you arrive in Cape Verde, you will have to pay cash UP FRONT for your entire stay. They will accept American dollars.
The hotel has requested that we not make individual reservations. Therefore, ESPO will gather all the reservation information and submit it to them. Our room block will expire on July 1, so we want to begin gathering this information immediately. As you can tell from the information above, this is a tourist hotel and Cape Verde and Santa Maria in particular, are a big tourist destination for European travelers in August and September.
I am requesting each PI and Group Lead to send me a list of the people on your team that you will be taking in the field, and the dates of their stays. I realize that you probably have not made plane reservations yet and therefore the dates may change a bit when you do but, your lists will give me a good approximation to pass on to the hotel in order to secure the rooms. Please provide the information to me as soon as possible, I must send the final information to the hotel by June 15th.
There will be separate arrangements made for the people who will be staying and working at or near Praia and I will send out the hotel information separately when it is finalized.
To Summarize:
1) Do not make your own reservations, they will be made through ESPO
2) The hotel only accepts Visa credit cards or cash. They will accept USD or Euros
3) I must have all information to the hotel by June 15th, send me names and dates of stay for everyone who will or might go.
4) Each person will be responsible for paying his own hotel bill with credit card or cash.
As always, if you have any problems or questions, please feel free to call me,
Sue Tolley
NAMMA Project Coordinator
Earth Science Project Office
NASA-Ames Research Center
650-604-6033 office
650-455-4963 cell
Other
Hotels
- Hotel Odjo D’Agua. Very nice, rustic hotel on the beach, with restaurant, pool, and bar. Breakfast included. Limited TV and internet. Hotel only has 50 rooms, but would obtain extra rooms at adjacent property. Room rate would be around $70/night.
- Hotel Crioula
- Hotel Morabeza
- Hotel Belorizonte
Hotel options in Praia:
- Hotel Pestana Tropico: which has high speed wireless Internet in the lobby, comfortable rooms, full amenities and one of the best restaurants in the city.
- Hotel Oasis Atlantico Praiamar: which is even nicer but only has dial up Internet in the lobby.
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Local Transportation
Avis and Hertz rental cars are located at the airport on Sal. There are a very limited number of cars available. We plan to use a shuttle bus for the airport/hotel transit.
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Phone Service
Phone service. Cell Phones are GSM with SIM cards available for purchase. Need to identify phone provider; CVT is only the service provider. Country code for Cape Verde is 238.
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Cape Verde Visa Information
To All NAMMA Participants who are traveling to Cape Verde this summer for the NAMMA Mission:
If you are not a US citizen, you will need to contact the Cape Verde Embassy in Washington, DC to learn whether you need a visa.
If you are a US citizen and ARE a Civil Servant, you will need to get a Visa through your NASA Center.
If you are a US citizen and NOT a Civil Servant, you will need to get a Visa, there are two ways to acquire the visa;
First way: Here is the information from the State Department website at: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1083.html
""ENTRY/EXIT REQUIREMENTS: A passport and visa are required. Visa approval can take several days and Cape Verde issues two types of tourist visas: a single-entry visa valid for up to 90 days or a multiple entry visa valid for one year. You may contact the Embassy of the Republic of Cape Verde, 3415 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington D.C. 20007, tel. (202) 965-6820; or the Consulate General of Cape Verde in Boston (tel. 617-353-0014). Overseas, inquiries should be made to the nearest Cape Verde embassy or consulate. See our Foreign Entry Requirements brochure for more information on Cape Verde and other countries. Visit the Embassy of Cape Verde web site at http://praia.usembassy.gov for the most current visa information.
See Entry and Exit Requirements for more information pertaining to dual nationality and the prevention of international child abduction. Please refer to our Customs Information to learn more about customs regulations. ""
Since we have plenty of time you may wish to obtain your visa this way, in advance of your travel. When you are filling out the form:
Our "POC/Reference/Host" for the Mission is Dr. Jose Pimenta Lima (Insituto Nacional de Meteorologia e Geofisica, INMG ), his phone number is 238-991-8659. You can put his name on the visa application.
For "Purpose of Visit" we suggest "Official Business"
Second way:
You can receive a visa on arrival in Cape Verde, right at the airport. We have made arrangements to submit a list of names of people who wish to receive their visa on arrival to the Immigration Police. We will need to have complete passport information and arrival and departure dates. We can do this for people arriving commercially, on the C-5 or on the DC-8.
If you wish to choose this option you will need to send your passport information to Sue Tolley at stolley@mail.arc.nasa.gov or at 650-604-6033:
Passport number and expiration date,
Date and place of issue,
Date and place of birth ( city and state )
I will also need an electronic copy of your passport. If you are uncomfortable with this, please call me and we can arrange for a faxed copy instead.
As always, if you have problems or questions, please call or email me,
Sue Tolley
650-604-6033
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Currency
Current exchange rate is approximately 86 Cape Verde Escudos (CVE)/dollar as of 5/13/06. ATMs (or caxias) are limited in the city (there are two at the airport). There are also several currency exchanges at the airport. Some places, especially hotels, will take dollars or euros.
Cape Verde Per Diem Rates (In US Dollars)
Sal Island :$198
Sao Tiago Island (Praia) : $195
Table of Cape Verde Per Diem rates (PDF)
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Airport
Amilcar Cabral Airport, Sal Island, Cape Verde. The Sal airport is located at 16.4˚ N latitude, 22.6˚ W longitude, about 20 km (12 miles) north of the city of Santa Maria, and 2 km from the island capital, Espargos. The airport has two runways with taxi-ways, Runway 01/19 at 10,700 ft by 148 ft, and Runway 07/25 at 4900 ft by 148 ft. Currently, there are no U.S. carriers flying directly to Sal. TACV, the Cape Verdean airline, has service from Boston several times per week. There are several connections via Lisbon, Dakar, and Paris.
Getting to Sal:
Go through Lisbon. There are daily evening flights from Lisbon to Sal on TACV (Transportes Aéreos de Cabo Verde) and TAP Air Portugal (Star Alliance partner). The TAP flight departs Lisbon at 9:50 pm, arriving in Sal at 11:50 pm. The TACV flight leaves one hour earlier.
You can get to Lisbon from the U.S. via Newark. There is a daily flight on both Continental and TAP. TAP has a second flight three times/week. Through Europe, all the major hubs, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris have flights (including code shares) to Lisbon. For U.S. government personnel, it seems like the best fares are through Frankfurt. Also, there are some charter flights from Germany, Italy, and England, but I would not recommend going this route.
TACV has direct service from Boston two times per week (Tuesdays & Fridays) during the summer. Note that U.S. government personnel cannot fly on a non-U.S. carrier, and TACV may not accept all forms of payment (like MasterCard).
Currently, there are no U.S. carriers flying directly to Sal. South African Airways (Delta code share) no longer has a direct flight from Atlanta.
Getting to Praia:
Go through Sal or Dakar. South African Airways (a new Star Alliance partner) is will be using Dakar as a refueling stop on flights from JFK (daily) and Washington Dulles (four times/week). Through Europe, there are direct flights from Brussels and Paris to Dakar.
From Dakar, Air Senegal has daily flights to Praia, and there are several flights per week on TACV.
There are also daily flights between Sal and Praia on TACV. Flight schedules vary, but there are between 2-4 flights/day.
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Other
General Notes
- Health and Safety. Do not drink tap water; buy bottled water. Travelers should take whatever prescription and over-the-counter medications they might need during the deployment. There are clinics at the Sal airport, in Espargos, and in Santa-Maria.
- Language. Official language is Portuguese. Crioula is the local language. Some English is spoken at hotels and among local officials and airport personnel. Spanish, French, German, and Italian are also spoken.
- Time. Cape Verde standard time is UTC/GMT -1 hour. There is no daylight savings time.
- Weather and Local Environment. Summer is the “rainy season”, with about 1-2 inches per month. Temperatures typically are around 85 F during the day with high humidity, and 65-70 F at night, though daytime temps can go over 100 F.
- Gases. Gases and cryogens for science instrument support are not available on Sal Island, and will need to be shipped.
- Web sites. For more information:
- U.S. State Department Consular Information Sheets: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1083.html
- Cabo Verde 24: http://www.caboverde24.com/
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