Planning for the pre-dissertation sabbatical

I met with Dr. Bryan Mark to discuss plans for traveling into the Andes. I will be flying into Lima on June 20th and meeting others from McGill University. Then after 2 field weeks (or 22 days) I will return with bags of water to analyze and breath-taking views to digest. All of this pre-dissertation sabbatical planning is going well and the bottles are piling up for a massive assessment of Andean water quality. I am also finalizing the last paper in my dissertation (unless I write a fourth...). Anyway, I am geeked out and my brain is already at high altitude... this is mostly because I saw a picture of the rise of the Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Blanca that bisect Peru... in the middle of these two ranges is the valley we will be researching. The valley floor is at 11,300 ft. or well above the elevation of the famed Machu Picchu one of the last great Incan cities.