Balsa

Boats made out of reeds. Commonly used on Lake Titicaca and sometimes for river navigation.

Batea

Wooden bowl for panning gold.

Ceja de la Selva

 (High Jungle or mountain rim — literally “eyebrow of the jungle”) refers to the area between 1,000 and 9,000 ft on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera.

Chacra del oro

Literally a “gold farm” or a small plot exploited to extract gold.

Chalona

Cured meat of alpaca or lamb. Its origins are not well known but it is presumed that this practice comes from Inca Empire.

This is a common dish in the regions of Puno, Cusco and Arequipa.

Chicha

A fermented, beer-like drink made in the Andes from maize.

Chichona

"Quinine Bark" is one of the rainforest's most famous plants. Legends say that the name cinchona comes from the Countess of Chinchon, the wife of a viceroy of Peru, who was cured in 1638 of a malarial type of fever by using the bark of the Cinchona tree. The Countess supposedly introduced it to European medicine in 1640, but botanists did not know the identity of the plant that is its source until 1737. Despite the fact that quinine and quinidine drugs were patented, Peru and Bolivia, where the discovery was made and from where the resources where extracted, did not share in the patents or resulting profits.

Chuño

Freeze-dried potatoes. Ancient Andeans were the first to develop freeze-drying. In order to remove toxins from potatoes, they made a product called chuño. In making chuño, potatoes were first spread on the ground so they would freeze overnight. In the morning, while the potatoes were still frozen, they were stomped under foot. The resulting pulp was dried by day in the Andean sun beneath a layer of straw. This process was repeated daily for two weeks. The freezing and stomping caused the cell walls of the potato to burst, destroying the epidermis of the tuber, resulting in a food product high in carbohydrates, and low in protein, vitamins, minerals, and glycoalkaloid a substance that causes a bitterness in potatoes. Chuño was used in stews or eaten like bread and can be stored for up to ten years. It is still eaten in areas of Bolivia.

Coca

(Quechua) A plant whose leaves contain a natural stimulant. In the Andes, indigenous people chewed coca leaves, in part to hold hunger at bay. When highly refined and processed, coca leaves are source of cocaine, a drug developed after the colonial period. A cocal is a coca plantation.

Cordillera

The peaks of the Andes Mountains.

Gold

In 1558 a gold rush began to the Carabaya after it was discovered by a group of free blacks and mulattos at a place called Inahuaya. The gold rush to the upper Tambopata did not last long. The town of San Juan de Oro, which had about 20 people at its founding, swelled to 3000 within its first 10 years. By 1570 the gold deposits became exhausted and by 1583 only 1500 people remained, until the town dwindled into a few Indian huts.

In 1896, the United States owned Inca Mining Company purchased the right to mine gold along the upper Inambari River, and soon became the richest gold producer in Peru.

Montaña

The tropical rainforest East of the Andean Cordillera.

Native People

Ese'eja

 (Ese Exa, Tiatinagua, Tambopata-Guarayo, Huarayo, Ese Eja, "Chama", Ese'ejja) 250 to 400 in Peru, 600 to 650 in Bolivia. Tambopata and Heath rivers around Maldonado. The Tambopata dialect in Peru is somewhat different.

"Chama" is a derogatory name. (Member of the Tacanan | Tiatinagua linguistic family)

The Ese'eja ethnic group belongs to the Tacana language  family and has traditionally inhabited the Tambopata,  Heath, Beni and Madidi River basins in Peru and Bolivia.  In 1948, the Ese'eja population was estimated at 15,000  individuals. Presently, the Ese'eja Native Community of  the Tambopata River has fewer than 400 members, and  although other Ese'eja communities exist along the Heath  River, a drastic decrease in the population has occurred  due to diseases introduced by foreigners and to the  atrocities committed during the rubber boom.

Tacana

The collective designation for a group of tribes constituting the Tacanan linguistic stock in different dialects, occupying the upper valleys of the Beni and Madre de Dios Rivers, on the eastern slope of the Andes, Department of Beni, north-western Bolivia. The group includes: the Tacana proper, the Isiamo, the Cavina, and the Aten or Leco, all missionized by the Franciscan Fathers of the College of Ocopa, Peru, about the end of the eighteenth century; the still uncivilized Toromona and Araume and several others; and the more remote Sapibocona of the Moxos mission farther to the south. In 1832 the five Tacana missions contained 5304 Christian Indians, while the wild Toromona were estimated at 1000 more. In 1852 the traveller Weddell spent some time at the mission of Guanay and has given us a good description of the Indians as he found them. In 1883 Heath reports them as greatly reduced, the 1000 Cavina of 1832 having dwindled to 70 souls. Like their neighbours, the Mozetena and Yurucare, the Tacana are noted for their light complexion, fine features, and tall stature, averaging over five and a half feet. Of their language, which is extremely guttural and jerky in pronunciation, we have vocabularies by Heath and Weddell, besides a small devotional publication. In their primitive condition they subsisted, and still do, by agriculture, hunting, and fishing, went naked except for feather decorations on dance occasions, and lived in small communities subject to petty chiefs. Some of their tribes were reputed cannibals. The civilized Tacana wear as their principal garment a sleeveless shirt or chemise, keeping the head and feet bare. They are expert at weaving and the making of straw hats, but are not industrious beyond their immediate needs.

Chuncho

(Quechua) Inka name for Amazonian peoples.

Quechua

(or Quichua) The name of the native people whose leader was called the Inca (or Inka). It is also the name of the language spoken by most of Peru's indigenous population.

Inka

(Quechua) The empire built by a group of Quechua-speaking Andeans in the 14th and 15th centuries that stretched from Ecuador to Chile. "Sapa Inka" was the title of its supreme ruler, and its capital city was Cuzco. Also Inca.

See also Quechua

Rubber

The most important latex-producing plants are the tree Hevea brasiliensis of the spurge family, and other species in the same genus, which were the sources of the original South American rubber, the commercially important Para rubber.

In 1743 a French scientist, La Condamine, was the first to use rubber to waterproof his instruments, and it was then added to the end of pencils. Wider use was limited due to its properties of getting hard and brittle when cold, and sticky when hot. In 1839 Charles Goodyear discovered the process of vulcanization of rubber by heating rubber with sulphur, making it tough and elastic in any weather. Followed shortly by Dunlop’s invention of the pneumatic tire a huge demand was created for rubber, almost overnight.

The rubber boom in Peru lasted from 1880 to 1912, but the peak of rubber extraction in Madre de Dios didn’t begin until after the turn of the century, due to its isolation. In order to encourage the building of economic infrastructure in these remote areas, the Peruvian government began granting land concessions to any company that would build roads, bridges or river ports. As a result in 1896, the Inca Mining Company purchased the right to mine gold along the upper Inambari River, and soon became the richest gold producer in Peru. The Peruvian government offered the company 2 million acres of land along the Tambopata River, as long as they constructed a mule road from Tirapata to Puerto Markham (the highest navigable point on the Tambopata). By 1908 the road was completed by the Inca Rubber Company, a subsidiary of the Inca Mining Company.

The road allowed rubber to begin flowing out of Madre de Dios, up the Tambopata River, and towards the coast. In 1902 the harvest of 13 tons of rubber had increased to 293 by 1909.

Tambo

Guest house