123-Year-Old Man: Oldest Living Person Found in Bolivia
If records prove to be true, a Bolivian man may have just broken the record for "Oldest Man Alive."
Carmelo Flores Laura, a highland peasant living in a hamlet near Lake Titicaca, could be the oldest living person to ever be documented. In an Associate Press report published in the New York Post, Bolivia's public records show that Laura is now 123 years old.
"I should be about 100 years old or more," he noted.
According to the report, the man is a native Aymara, lives in a straw-roofed hut, speaks no Spanish but is fluent in Aymara, and has no teeth. Notably, however, Laura is as strong as other people half his age. At 123, he uses no cane for walking, can move freely without support, and though he has poor vision, he doesn't wear glasses.
"I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he told journalists from the news agency.
Living in a poverty-stricken area, Carmelo has been used to chewing coca leaf, "a mild stimulant that staves off hunger," notes the AP. Metro UK also reports that the Bolivian man has eaten both foxes and lizards to get by.
According to documents at the civil registry in Bolivia, Carmelo Flores Laura's birthdate was Jul. 16, 1890. While no birth certificate was available to prove the date, civil registry director Eugenio Condori says this type of document was not available in Bolivia until 1940. Births were initially registered with the Roman Catholic Church.
"For the state, the baptism certificate is valid," Codori explained.
Laura says he owes his old-age to exercise and diet.
"I walk a lot, that's all. I go out with the animals," he noted. "I don't eat noodles or rice, only barley. I used to grow potatoes, beans, oca [an Andean tuber]."
He also added that he doesn't drink alcohol and eats a lot of mutton. The 123-year-old man also emphasized how he has never really been seriously ill.
According to Guinness World Records, the oldest living person to be recorded (and proven with documents) is 115-year-old Japanese woman, Misao Okawa. A spokesperson for the agency also said they have no reports on claims of an oldest living person in Bolivia.
Carmelo has three children with his deceased wife, but only one is still alive. He has 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grand children.