Weekend chores keep kids busy and fields tended. There are schools in all indigenous villages through the elementary level, but weekends are a time for helping out. These girls are in charge of weeding the family's small plot of quinoa while their parents look for work in the nearby town of Riobamba.

Although more than 1/3 of the working population is farming, mounting diffculties in Ecuador's agricultural system are sending farmers looking, often unsuccessfully, for other sources of income. Growing organic quinoa for the international market is turning out to be a profitable option.