Farmer ploughing his field in Crete

In Crete, farming and access to fields is made difficult by the craggy landscape. The donkey, the traditional means of locomotion, transport and traction is definitely the animal best suited to the island's topography but it is now no longer used as much, like in this fertile plain on the Lassithi plateau. It is believed that the local climate, deemed one of the most salubrious and mildest in Europe favours the exceptional longevity of Crete's inhabitants. But the virtues of the Cretan diet in which olives and olive oil have pride of place, also play a part in this. However, Cretans are not the only ones who live for such a long time : the Vilcabamba Valley, in Ecuador, also has many hundred-year-olds. Medical progress and the improvement of sanitary conditions throughout the world is gradually increasing humanity's average life expectancy which is currently 66 years old. But this indicator is still very unequal depending on which country one is in : in Japan and in Canada, people live to be 80 years old on average whereas three out of four people die before their 50th birthday in less advanced countries.