La Rinconada, Peru: The World’s Highest Town — and One of Its Most Lawless

At over 5,100 meters above sea level, La Rinconada, Peru holds the title of the highest permanent settlement on Earth. That alone is enough to make it stand out. But what life is actually like in a place where the air has about half the oxygen of sea level, where there are no trees, and the average temperature barely creeps above freezing? It’s not a vacation spot, and it’s not a typical mountain town.

La Rinconada sits high in the Peruvian Andes, near the edge of a glacier, surrounded by rock, cold, and thin air. For most people, even visiting would mean dealing with altitude sickness. Your heart races, your head pounds, and even walking short distances leaves you breathless. Living there long term pushes the human body in ways that few places on Earth can. People born and raised at lower elevations often struggle just to function, while those who stay in La Rinconada for years may develop chronic health problems linked to the lack of oxygen, like excessive red blood cell production that can lead to fatigue, dizziness, or worse.

Despite these conditions, tens of thousands of people have made La Rinconada their home. It isn’t because of comfort, scenery, or opportunity in the traditional sense. It’s because there is gold in the mountains. The lure of gold has drawn waves of people here, especially as global prices have gone up. And with that migration came a rough kind of town life built almost entirely around informal mining.

Most of La Rinconada’s residents work in or around the gold trade. Many miners work under a system called “cachorreo,” where they labor for free for 30 days. On the 31st day, they are allowed to carry out as much ore as they can lift. If it contains gold, they get to keep it. If not, they’ve worked an entire month for nothing. There’s no guarantee, no safety net, and often very little fairness. Some miners say they’re deliberately sent to the worst areas on their “payment day,” where there’s little chance of finding anything valuable.

The town has grown quickly but without planning or oversight. Basic services are mostly missing. There’s no running water, no sewage system, and garbage piles up in the streets. Electricity arrived only recently, and it’s not always reliable. With few waste systems in place, pollution is a daily part of life. Water sources are tainted with mercury from the mining process, and locals often have no choice but to drink from them anyway.

Homes are usually built from metal sheets or whatever materials are available. They offer little insulation from the cold, and heating is rare. People burn trash for warmth. The smell of smoke and chemicals hangs in the air. Many live in makeshift shelters on steep slopes, surrounded by a mixture of mud, rock, and debris.

Law enforcement is minimal. La Rinconada is often called “the lawless city of Peru,” and stories from residents and visitors back that up. Crime is widespread, and there’s a strong sense that everyone is on their own. Reports of violence, robbery, and trafficking are common. Some travelers who’ve made it to the town speak of being warned not to go outside after dark, or even at all.

Still, people continue to arrive. For some, it’s a last resort. Many come from poorer parts of Peru or neighboring regions, hoping to strike gold and earn enough to start a better life elsewhere. For most, that dream doesn’t come true. But even a small chance seems worth it, especially compared to the options back home.

Life in La Rinconada takes a toll. The air is so thin that many suffer from long-term altitude-related health issues. Some develop chronic mountain sickness, condition caused by excessive red blood cell production that can lead to fatigue, dizziness, and serious heart complications. Others struggle with memory problems and headaches that never seem to go away. The average life expectancy is shockingly low—some estimates say just 30 to 35 years.

As part of Expedition 5300, the Asher Lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science conducted on-site research in La Rinconada on circadian rhythms and uncovered extraordinary physiological adaptations linked to life at extreme altitude. According to their findings, locals exhibit exceptionally high hemoglobin levels, allowing their bodies to carry more oxygen in thin air. Surprisingly, many residents maintain normal blood pressure, suggesting the presence of little-understood compensatory mechanisms.

These findings not only deepen our understanding of how the human body can survive—if not fully thrive—under extreme environmental stress, but they may also inform future treatments for lowland diseases related to oxygen deficiency, such as heart or lung conditions.

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Despite everything, there’s a kind of community here. Markets exist, along with basic stores and restaurants. Women called “pallaqueras” work through the piles of leftover rock, looking for bits of gold missed by the miners. Some festivals and local customs continue to be observed. There are even stories of strange spiritual practices tied to the mining culture, like offerings to figures known as “the grandparents.”

Visiting La Rinconada isn’t easy, and it isn’t recommended unless you’re prepared for the altitude, the isolation, and the lack of basic comforts. Those who do go often describe the experience as overwhelming. The cold, the pollution, the physical strain, and the sense of survival over everything else make for a very different kind of place. For the people who live there, life is shaped by one thing above all: the hope, however small, of finding gold in the rock underfoot.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10