![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.](https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/da1/111/a7035510c68cbd7123a1eb402f3ee9662d-16-worlds-oldest-man.rsquare.w400.jpg)
A Bolivian man who officials claim is 123 years old — which would make him the oldest person ever recorded — credits lots of walking and a diet that includes barley but not noodles or rice for his longevity. Also, “like most Bolivian highlands peasants,” Carmelo Flores Laura has been chewing coca leaves his entire life and still does today. The coca leaf is a “mild stimulant” and the source of cocaine, but it is not cocaine. We just put that in the headline to pique your interest. Don’t do cocaine.