After filming at Q’oyllur riti for two days, we pack up quickly and chase up the rugged mountain trails after the Q’eros with all our equipment, horses and aching lowlander lungs. We arrive in Qochamoqo long after the Q’eros have arrived home, some in Qochamoqo and some back to the other Q’eros villages, like Hatun Q’eros which lies another eight hours hike further into the Andes.

It is beyond quiet in the narrow valley in the shadow of Huaman Lipa. We film the village for two days. Life here is slow-paced and routine, lovely and harsh. The impossibly adorable children drive the alpaca and sheep up the slopes at dawn. The women gracefully spin wool as they walk on dangling spindles. The men dig at the soil, unearthing dozens of varieties of native potato.

Milton Gamarra of Asociación ANDES has been working with the Q’eros of Qochamoqo to repatriate native varieties of potato that had ceased to be cultivated. As Peru adjusted to European colonization and modernity, many indigenous communities no longer grew their traditional potatoes and lost the bountiful nutrition that the variety had provided. But, with help from the International Potato Center in Lima and their potato gene and seed banks, ANDES is bringing these potatoes back. Communities like Qochamoqo have seen their subsistence production improve. However, with the changes in climate due to global warming, they are now experiencing droughts. Most of Peru’s glaciers are melting. Temperatures are climbing even at this altitude. Now, potato blight (remember Ireland?) is spreading, reaching up to higher elevations and threatening the existence of indigenous communities who have lived in balance with nature for millennia.