The oldest man on Earth was found in Bolivia: a month ago, he was allegedly 123 years old, reports AP.
Carmelo Flores Laura is a peasant living in a mountain village near Lake Titicaca in western Bolivia. If the documents indicate the correct date of his birth, then he set an absolute record for longevity.
Flores is a native Aymara - Andean Indian. He lives in a traditional hut with an earthen floor and a thatched roof, does not speak Spanish, is literate, and has almost no teeth. He does not need any walking sticks or glasses. He speaks loudly and well in the language of his people, but in order to say something to him, you have to speak in your ear.
“Before I had good eyesight, now I see a little dim. But I saw that you arrived! - greeted Flores journalists of the agency. He almost always chews on coca leaves, a mild stimulant that prevents hunger. Like many Bolivians, he chewed it throughout his life.
Flores himself does not remember exactly how old he is: "I must be about 100 years old or more," he suggests. His 27-year-old grandson claims that the Bolivian fought in the Chaco War with Paraguay in 1933, but Flores himself has a hard time remembering those times. The director of the local registration department, Eugenio Condore, showed reporters a document according to which Flores was born on July 16, 1890.
The problem is that there were no birth certificates in Bolivia until 1940. The date of birth was recorded in acts of baptism performed by Roman Catholic priests. The act of baptism of Flores exists, but not for prying eyes - it refers to personal documents, and Condore could not demonstrate it.
The long-liver ate foxes and lizards
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When asked what Flores owes his longevity, he said that he simply always walked a lot and continues to do it: for almost his entire life he grazed cattle and sheep. As far as diet is concerned, he doesn't eat noodles or rice, only barley. Previously, he also grew potatoes, beans and tuberous acid, a plant that grows well in the Andes. He drinks water from alpine springs, he has not touched alcohol for a long time, although in his youth, of course, he did. Longevity, in his opinion, is facilitated by a complete rejection of sugar and starchy foods and a love for the wild species of quinoa, rich in proteins and amino acids.
True, in his entire life he ate quite a lot of lamb, although he prefers pork - in these places it is a rare product. But sometimes the Bolivian had to eat lizards and foxes to survive.
According to Flores, he never moved more than 80 km from home and never got seriously ill. He misses his wife very much, who died more than ten years ago, and of his three children, only one is still alive: this is Cecilio, he is 67 years old. But the old man has 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, most of them live separately from him.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest living person is a Japanese woman, Misao Okawa, who celebrated her 115th birthday in March. If Flores's date of birth turns out to be correct, he will remove her from this place of honor. The absolute record for life expectancy belongs to the Frenchwoman Jeanne Kalman - she lived 122 years and died in 1997. The age of these two centenarians is well documented.
