Bolivian man, 123, the oldest living person ever documented

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 called Frasquia near Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 4,000 metres. Laura is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth.

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

"I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he tells a group of journalists who visited after a local TV report about him.

Hobbling down a dirt path, Flores greets them with a raised arm, smiles and sits down on a rock to chat. His gums bulge with coca leaf.