PORTRAITS FROM THE HORIZON'S EDGE.

In striking images, a Colombian-born photographer captures the strength and beauty of the inhabitants of isolated Chimborazo, Ecuador

The land may seem hard and harsh, but at this altitude one can reach the clouds. Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest peak, has been a people's homeland for millennia. The Inca found it long settled by peoples of different cultures and languages, often at war with one another, of whom little else seems to be known.

Today along the road leading to the summit of Chimborazo, several villages, with names like Santa Rosa, Santa Lucia, and San Rafael, are scattered across the gently rolling foothills. Residents see themselves as people of the land, tending sheep and goats and making a living from the soil by growing potatoes and beans--like so many before them--their sense of identity tied to this lofty place.

But the change that is occurring in countless rural areas of the Americas has come to Chimborazo: With dreams...