There is no running water, no sewage system, and no garbage disposal, but La Rinconada has one resource worth its weight.
Tucked away in the eastern Andes Mountains, about 5,000 meters (3 miles) above sea level, the town of La Rinconada is the highest permanent settlement in the world. The Peruvian town does not have running water, a sewage system, or garbage disposal. Yet 50,000 people live here amidst the thin air for one valuable resource: gold.
The natural-color image above was acquired on August 1, 2019, by the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8. La Rinconada lies in southeastern Peru, around 650 kilometers (400 miles) from the Bolivian border. The town is located on the side of Mount Ananea and below a giant glacier called La Bella Durmiente (meaning “Sleeping Beauty”).
The town started as a temporary mining settlement more than four decades ago, so no permanent city services (such as sanitation systems) were installed. Male miners were allowed to spend up to thirty days at a time in the mine to collect as much gold as they could. The miners received no wage while in the mine, but there were also no restrictions on how much gold they could haul out.
Continue reading at NASA Earth Observatory
Image via NASA Earth Observatory
