The Parched Fountain of Youth:
Decreasing Longetivity in Vilcabamba, Ecuador

By Caroline Boeke

The small town of Vilcabamba, Ecuador is popularly known for its high number of centenarians, people over one hundred years of age. The town, whose name means "sacred valley" in Quechua, is positioned in a remote valley of the Andes Mountains. Traditionally, Vilcabamba has intrigued scientists because of how long its residents typically lived and how few chronic diseases they tended to acquire with age.

Scientists have presented different factors as potential causes of such extreme longevity, including the town's low air pollution. Some credit the benevolent climate or mineral-rich water. Other researchers argue that Vilcabamba's locals kept their hearts healthy with regular agricultural labor and frequent sex. In addition, to relatively stress-free lives, the residents' diet may have been particularly important. Vilcabambans tended to limit their calories and eat only self-grown organic foods.

Times seem to be changing in Vilcabamba. Although the town was once heralded as the "Valley of Longevity," the lifespan and quality of health of its residents has decreased in the last thirty years. With so many longevos (long lived people), Vilcabamba had become a sort of haven of health amongst Ecuadorians and foreigners alike. Tourists heard about this "fountain of youth" and suddenly, Vilcabamba was included on the itineraries of the mochileros (backpackers) traveling through the region. In my own experience traveling through Ecuador two summers ago, it seemed that nearly everyone I met spoke of the ?wonders? of Vilcabamba and the extraordinary longevity of the people who lived there.

To support the new tourist industry, spas, discotecas, fast food restaurants, and internet cafes were built, and buses and taxicabs joined the four or five cars that had existed in the town fifteen years earlier. As the local priest, Father Ocina, told the Guardian, "The problem is the old people don't lead the same lives as before. The highway from [the nearby town of] Loja, electricity, the cars and backpackers, they've changed everything. Now the old people prefer to sit in their homes and watch the tourists go by." Globalization also introduced more accessible, unhealthy foods, leading residents to eat more calories and lower quality diets. These dietary changes may well be correlated with the decreasing health and longevity of the locals.

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