The upcoming edition of the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS) will be held next June in Atibaia, São Paulo. The deadlines of some workshops has been recently extended, thus allowing more people to put together on a paper what they have been doing and have not published so far. Even if you are not thinking about submitting anything, attending to such a conference can be a double score for the opportunity of visiting an unusual place in Brazil (i.e., somewhere but Rio de Janeiro and the Northeast beaches).
Maybe I am not the right person to praise about Atibaia because I’ve never been there despite invitations from friends and living less than 50 miles away. However, it seems an interesting place for activities such as paragliding due to a big rock they have there. Besides, you will be near Brazil’s largest and most cosmopolitan city (well, that is the humble opinion of many “paulistas”, but might not be shared by our neighbors from Rio). To name but a few things worth tasting or seeing here:
- tasting cheese bread (pão de queijo);
- tasting Pan’s chocolate popcorn;
- taking an outside look at the São Paulo Art Museum (MASP);
- hanging around Paulista Avenue;
- wasting a worthwhile afternoon at our best bookshop (Livraria Cultura);
- taking an inside look at the São Paulo State Art Gallery (Pinacoteca do Estado);
- watching the audiovisual show of the Portuguese Language Museum;
- crossing São Paulo’s weird-but-awesome cable-stayed bridge (Ponte Estaiada);
- having a sushi at the Liberdade district or a pizza at the Bixiga district.
Thiago Serra 