123-Year-Old Man From Bolivia: Carmelo Flores Laura As World’s Oldest Living Person

If we believe what the Bolivia’s public records say, then Carmelo Flores Laura is now the world’s oldest living person at 123 years old. According to the director of Bolivia’s civil registrar, Eugenio Condori, Flores was born on July 16, 1890.

The Guinness World Records lists 115-year-old Japanese woman, Misao Okawa, as the oldest living person verified by original proof of birth. The oldest verified age was 122 years and 164 days: Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997.

To what does Flores owe his longevity?

“I walk a lot, that’s all. I go out with the animals,” says Flores, who long herded cattle and sheep. “I don’t eat noodles or rice, only barley. I used to grow potatoes, beans, oca (an Andean tuber).”

The water Flores drinks originates on the snow-capped peak of Illampu, one of Bolivia’s highest.

He says he doesn’t drink alcohol, but imbibed some in his youth. He’s eaten a lot of mutton, and though he likes pork it is hardly available. He fondly remembers hunting and eating fox as a younger man.

Flores says he has never been farther afield than La Paz, 50 miles away, and has never been seriously ill.

He sorely misses his wife, who died more than a decade ago. Of their three children only one is still alive: Cecilio, age 67. There are 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren but most have left Frasquia, a dozen homes a two-hour walk from the nearest road.

Via NY Post