What is La Rinconada Peru?
La Rinconada in Peru is an old gold-mining camp in the remote Peruvian Andes that has grown to ‘major city’ status. Over 50,000 people live in this mountainous city at an altitude of 16,732 ft or 5,100 m. It lays claim to the title of the ‘highest city in the world’.
Who lives in La Rinconada?
At a height of over 16,000 feet, it’s a place where only the hardest-skinned can carve a living. More than 50,000 people live in the settlement, perched atop Mount Ananea in the Peruvian Andes. It spends much of the year in sub-zero temperatures.
What do most people suffer from in La Rinconada Peru?
Scientists estimate that in the town one in every four residents can suffer from Chronic Mountain Sickness. The symptoms of CMS are dizziness, headaches, ringing ears, sleep problems, breathlessness, palpitations, fatigue, and cyanosis, which turns lips, gums, and hands into purplish blue color.
How do you get from La Rinconada to Peru?
There is no easy way to get to La Rinconada. To start, international visitors should fly into Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ) in Cusco, Peru. From Cusco, take a train or a bus to Puno—which sits on the shore of Lake Titicaca.
What is the main idea of La Rinconada?
It is a film about girls who live in desperately hard places, about how educating them could change their families, their communities and very possibly the world. In the course of my journey up to La Rinconada, I had every expectation that I would find hunger and hardship.
What basic facilities does La Rinconada lack?
La Rinconada has no running water, no sewage system, and no garbage removal. It is heavily contaminated with mercury, which is used to extract the gold.
Why do people continue to live in La Rinconada Peru?
It was founded by settlers, who were attracted to these remote places by the discovered reserves of the gold ore. Despite the fact that it is very hard to live at such a height because of thin air and harsh climatic conditions, the population of La Rinconada is still growing steadily.
Is it hard to breathe in La Rinconada?
The air in La Rinconada is difficult to breathe for tourists and other outsiders. At such a great altitude, the air is dangerously thin. This is because gravity holds oxygen close to the surface of Earth, and people begin feeling altitude sickness at around 10,000 feet.
What are the health problems in La Rinconada Peru?
Dubbed the ‘Devil’s Paradise’, residents reportedly suffer from lung diseases and respiratory infections which impact the nervous system causing memory loss, deformities, paralysis and eventually death. Now, the settlers and others in La Rinconada say the gold supply is running out in the area.
What is the theme of La Rinconada?
It is a film about girls who live in desperately hard places, about how educating them could change their families, their communities, and very possibly the world. In the course of my journey up to La Rinconada, I had every expectation that I would find hunger and hardship.
Why do government officials rarely visit La Rinconada?
According to “In La Rinconada, Peru, Searching for Beauty in Ugliness,” why do government officials rarely visit La Rinconada? Thin air and bitter cold make the place uninviting.
What is life like in La Rinconada?
There are no schools or hospitals and the life expectancy of this population is 30-35 years, about half that of an average Peruvian citizen. People die slowly, devoured by lung diseases and respiratory infections that over time affect the nervous system, causing deformation, memory loss, paralysis and death.