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Bolivia records: Aymara herder is 123 years old

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Carmelo Flores Laura, a native Aymara, walks near his home in the village of Frasquia, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. To what does the cattle and sheepherder owe his longevity? “I walk a lot, that’s all. I go out with the animals,” he says. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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Carmelo Flores Laura, a native Aymara, speaks during an interview outside his home in the village of Frasquia, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. To what does the cattle and sheepherder owe his longevity? “I walk a lot, that’s all. I go out with the animals,” he says. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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Carmelo Flores Laura, a native Aymara, sits outside his home in the village of Frasquia, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. His grandson, Edwin, says he fought in the 1933 Chaco war with Paraguay but he said he only faintly remembers that. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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Carmelo Flores Laura, a native Aymara, poses for a photo with his great-grandchildren outside his home in the village of Frasquia, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. Flores has 40 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren but most have left his hamlet of Frasquia, a dozen homes a two-hour walk from the nearest road in Warisata. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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Carmelo Flores Laura, a native Aymara, walks with his hands behind his back in the village of Frasquia, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. To what does the cattle and sheepherder owe his longevity? “I walk a lot, that’s all. I go out with the animals,” he says. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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Carmelo Flores Laura, a native Aymara, sits outside in his village of Frasquia, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. Flores said he sorely misses his wife, who died more than a decade ago. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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A view of Frasquia village and surrounding area where Aymara native Carmelo Flores Laura lives in Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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Carmelo Flores Laura, a native Aymara, sits outside his home in the village of Frasquia, Bolivia, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2013. If Bolivia’s public records are correct, Flores is the oldest living person ever documented. They say he turned 123 a month ago. His grandson, Edwin, says he fought in the 1933 Chaco war with Paraguay but he said he only faintly remembers that. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

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By CARLOS VALDEZ

The Associated Press

FRASQUIA, Bolivia —

If Bolivia's public records are correct, Carmelo Flores Laura is the oldest living person ever documented.

They say he turned 123 a month ago.

The native Aymara lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet (4,000 meters), is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth.

He walks without a cane and doesn't wear glasses. And though he speaks Aymara with a firm voice, one must talk into his ear to be heard.

"I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he tells Associated Press journalists who visit after a local TV report touts him as the world's oldest person.

Hobbling down a dirt path, Flores greets them with a raised arm, smiles and sits down on a rock. His gums bulge with coca leaf, a mild stimulant that staves off hunger. Like most Bolivian highlands peasants, he has been chewing it all his life.

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

Guinness spokeswoman Jamie Panas said it wasn't aware of a claim being filed for the Bolivian.

"I should be about 100 years old or more," Flores says. But his memory is dim.

http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/top-news/bolivia-records-aymara-herder-is-123-years-old/nZPGx/

Amazing. Good for him!

Wow.

Walking does a body good.

I walk a GRIP, am 38 and got asked if I was 18 or older the other day. True story...

Me (at American Apparel): "Do you guys have the new Vice magazine?"

Clerk 1: "Yes, we do."

Me: "Word."

Clerk 2: "Are you 18 or older?"

Me: "WORD?! Well bless your cotton socks!"

Everybody: "Ha ha ha."

Oh, and water. COPIOUS amounts of water!

SuperSoulFighter said:

That mountain air must be healthy!

...and all that Quinoa

CocoRock said:

Walking does a body good.

I walk a GRIP, am 38 and got asked if I was 18 or older the other day. True story...

Me (at American Apparel): "Do you guys have the new Vice magazine?"

Clerk 1: "Yes, we do."

Me: "Word."

Clerk 2: "Are you 18 or older?"

Me: "WORD?! Well bless your cotton socks!"

Everybody: "Ha ha ha."

Oh, and water. COPIOUS amounts of water!

I'll bet that made your day. It surely would've made mine. I'm 38 as well and for the last couple of years or so, I noticed that people are no longer shocked when I told them my age. They used to protest and swear I must be younger, but now, nothing!

xpertluva said:

CocoRock said:

Walking does a body good.

I walk a GRIP, am 38 and got asked if I was 18 or older the other day. True story...

Me (at American Apparel): "Do you guys have the new Vice magazine?"

Clerk 1: "Yes, we do."

Me: "Word."

Clerk 2: "Are you 18 or older?"

Me: "WORD?! Well bless your cotton socks!"

Everybody: "Ha ha ha."

Oh, and water. COPIOUS amounts of water!

I'll bet that made your day. It surely would've made mine. I'm 38 as well and for the last couple of years or so, I noticed that people are no longer shocked when I told them my age. They used to protest and swear I must be younger, but now, nothing!

It did INDEED make my day!

And if that's you in your avatar, I would NOT guess 38.

(Unless, that pic is like, 10 years old.)

CocoRock said:

xpertluva said:

I'll bet that made your day. It surely would've made mine. I'm 38 as well and for the last couple of years or so, I noticed that people are no longer shocked when I told them my age. They used to protest and swear I must be younger, but now, nothing!

It did INDEED make my day!

And if that's you in your avatar, I would NOT guess 38.

(Unless, that pic is like, 10 years old.)

Thanks! I actually changed my avatar recently, so that one is very recent. The main difference I've noticed as I get older is that I need my sleep. If I miss an hour, I look like Gary Busey the next day.