The illiterate herder shared his secret to a lasting life: eating skunk and fox meat, avoiding sugar or pasta and taking long walks
16 Aug 2013 00:00
By Matt Roper
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<figcaption style="display: block;">Aymara native, Carmelo Flores Laura, said to be 123 years old.</figcaption>
</figure> A man aged 123, said to be the oldest person ever recorded, has been found living in a dirt-floor hut in Bolivia. Illiterate herder Carmelo Flores Laura is still in good health, though all his teeth have gone, and doesn’t need a walking stick or glasses. And the Aymara Indian was happy to share his secret to a lasting life: eating skunk and fox meat, avoiding sugar or pasta and taking long walks.
The father of three – who has 16 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren – was born on July 16, 1890, the civil registry reveals. His daily diet has always included cananhua, a wild grain species rich in protein and amino acid, and occasionally pork and mutton.
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<figcaption style="display: block;">Lake Titicaca, where Flores lives</figcaption></figure>
"I shared the cooking with my wife. I’ve never been lazy – and I still go on long walks every day.”
His straw-roofed hut is in the isolated hamlet of Frasquia, 13,100ft up in the Andes near Lake Titicaca. Relatives say he fought in a 1933 war with Paraguay but that apart has stayed near home.
Just one of his children, a son of 67, is alive. Birth certificates did not exist in Bolivia in 1890 but the day he was born is on his baptism document.
This must be verified by the Guinness Book of Records before he can officially overtake Jeanne Calment of France, who died at 122 in 1997, as the oldest person on record.
:p
