An Aymara villager in Bolivia is reportedly the world’s oldest person, if the records of his birth are correct.
123-year old Carmelo Flores Laura’s birthday is written in Bolivian archives as July 16th, 1890, but he says his memory is “dim” and he can’t recall exactly how old he is.
“I should be about 100 years old or more,” he says.
Flores lives in a straw hut in a tiny village near Lake Titicaca, is illiterate, and has never been farther than 50 miles outside his home. He says he doesn’t drink alcohol and has eaten the same things for years.
“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).”
Flores says he misses his wife every day, as she passed away about ten years ago. Of their three children, only one is still alive: 67-year old Cecilio. However, he does have 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, who have mostly moved out of the area.
According to Guinness, the previous oldest known living person was Misao Okawa, a 115-year-old Japanese woman. She took the title after 116-year old Besse Cooper died in December.