A man who visited the 'world's most remote city' documented every step of the way as he billed it as a place with 'no laws'.
At over 5,000 metres above sea level in Peru is La Rinconada, which is the highest permanent human settlement in the world and by all accounts not a very nice place to live.
It's been described by some as a 'lawless' settlement, and wanting to know what all the fuss was about, a YouTuber made his way up there to take a look and share every encounter.
During the visit, the man called it 'the sketchiest place' he'd ever seen with fights breaking out in the streets on a regular basis, making for 'one of the most intense places' he'd ever been.
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However, in his travels he did find many friendly people even if La Rinconada itself was a dangerous place.
The documentary maker and his cameraman were told to stay inside at night as the security advice they were given said things would 'completely change' once the sun went down.
They said that people coming to the city to work in the gold mines could work for up to 30 days without pay and then get a day where they could keep whatever gold they found.
Locals told the YouTuber they'd seen a man shot dead nearby shortly before the visit while the cameraman's journey outside to film some night shots of La Rinconada was cut short after someone apparently tried to rob him.
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Gunshots and screams persisted through the night, and in the morning the documentary maker said he'd seen three fights from his hotel window in the past 30 minutes.
They also saw men start a fight nearby with nobody deciding to stop them.
Despite it all he said the place itself, which is located at the bottom of a glacier, had a beauty to it.
He said: “Being in one of the most beautiful places that you can be on our planet, but also seeing the worst of what human beings can do to our planet.”
He's not the only one to visit La Rinconada, as Italian YouTuber Zazza also made the journey there accompanied by police officers for his protection.
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The man said he felt 'dizzy' being at such an altitude and was astonished that tens of thousands of people lived in the remote city.
One of the police officers warned that many of the criminals in the town stayed 'dressed as miners' so they would be harder to spot and catch, and that they'd spend the money they stole on things like drugs.
“Everything, armed robbery, assaults. There’s a territorial issue inside the mine, and that’s where they clash, or have disputes over control. They rob pedestrians, steal belongings that workers earn in the mines, then leave and hide,” a policeman in the video explained.
“They can commit any criminal act, and it’s not easy to identify them.”
Zazza also said that the place was littered with 'mountains and mountains of garbage', adding that the people who did work there would do gruelling work at a high altitude for '10 to 12 hours' a day and 'the only way to escape this hell, so to speak, is to drink'.
Topics: YouTube, Travel, Crime, Documentaries, World News
Joe Harker