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Picture of an
old man carrying boards and a young barefoot Quechua girl. Typically
indigenous people from the Andes wear sandals with soles made out of old tires
although they were traditionally made out of leather before the availability of
rubber. "Ajota" is the Quechua word for sandals made out of recycled
tires. "Ajotas" are a preferred footwear because they are very handy and
better than leather under wet conditions such as in rain and crossing rivers.
Foreign visitors, when observing these indigenous people of the Andes wearing
these sandals, might believe that Western-style shoes and socks would be better,
but the Quechua people from the Andes are very contented with their "ajotas" and
their feet are use to the cold weather. The young girl in the foreground
is barefoot, which was more common in the 1960s, but is rarely seen in modern
times. Barefoot is called "q'ara chaki" in the Quechua language.
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