This book was pretty good.

Lots has been written about the people of Vilcabamba and the surrounding communities. This book struck a good balance between a research-travel journal and a thorough analysis of how they lived. Most accounts of these people is far too whimsical and sentimental for my taste.

The author and his team did their best to corroborate the ages of their interviewees with their birth records. At face value it is compelling, but other researchers have found some of these same characters to have lied about their age. Many people share the same names in these villages and it is pretty easy to exaggerate ages. This problem faces all of the “blue zones.”

It is now widely believed that the people of the Andes generally do not live longer than modern Americans, and there is a strong case to be made that they shouldn’t be considered a blue zone. However, everyone still agrees that these people ARE able to stave off most modern diseases and retain a remarkable vigor into deep old age - the only real argument is about how old that age actually is.

Regardless of their true age, the author describes the differences in health and diet and lifestyle between the vigorous old who live a quiet, peasant agrarian life in the mountains, and the people in the towns who suffer many of the same problems we do with the standard American diet.

The writing is good, unlike many books of the time (1970s), which tend to be very long winded. The story was engaging, I felt like I was there, and I felt like I got a good idea of what these lifestyles were like.

Worth reading.