Tingo María

Before the Spanish, the forests along the Monzón and the Huallaga were home to peoples such as the Panatahuas and the Tulumayos, and chroniclers record that some withdrew deeper into the forest when Inca armies pushed into the region. A stone road about 5 kilometres long between the provinces of Leoncio Prado and Pachitea survives from the Inca period, linking the high jungle with the sierra. The name comes from the Quechua tinku, a meeting of rivers — here the Monzón and the Huallaga — and, by one local tradition, from a woman called María who fed and sheltered travellers on the river.

A small settlement, Juana del Río, had begun to form by about 1830, and explorers passed through in the 19th century; in 1868 Leoncio Prado took part in a hydrographic expedition down the Huallaga. But Tingo María was considered almost unreachable until 1936, when the road from Lima arrived. On 15 October 1938 the land was expropriated in favour of the settlers living there, the act now celebrated as the town's founding.

The state set up an agricultural experimental station, and from 1942 the United States government helped fund it; by 1960 over 160 square kilometres were under cultivation along the level land of the valley, with coffee a particularly valuable crop. The national park followed in 1965. In 1966 the American actor Eric Fleming, star of Rawhide, drowned in the Huallaga while filming nearby. Today the town is a regional hub on the highway between Lima and Pucallpa.

Tingo María calls itself the "door of the Amazon", and its culture is a blend of highland settlers and Amazonian tradition. The Bella Durmiente, the ridge whose silhouette resembles a sleeping woman, is the town's emblem, explained by a local legend, and gives it its other name, the "city of the Sleeping Beauty".

The great festival is San Juan on 24 June, shared across the Peruvian Amazon. On the eve, Tulumayo groups dance around bonfires to local bands; at dawn comes the pandillada, when people dance around a yunza, a tree hung with gifts; and during the day families go to the river beaches for dances, craft fairs and juane. The town's own anniversary in October and the anniversary of the national park in May are also celebrated.

The patron saint is Santa Teresita, chosen at the founding for the settlers' Catholic devotion. Traditional medicine has a strong place: drinks made from plants such as cat's claw, chuchuhuasi, camu camu and sangre de grado are part of local tradition. The National University of the Forest gives the town a student population and a focus on agriculture, forestry and the environment.

Tingo María had about 46,000 people at the 2017 census, making it the second-largest city of the Huánuco Region. It is the capital of Leoncio Prado Province and of Rupa-Rupa district, and its position on the highway halfway between Lima and Pucallpa, near the junction with the road north along the Huallaga to Tarapoto, makes it a busy regional crossroads.

Farming is the base of the economy. Coffee has long been a valuable crop, and cacao is important too: the Naranjillo agro-industrial cooperative works with cacao and sells its products abroad. Timber is another important industry, and the university, with seven faculties and its own botanical park, is based in the town.

Life is lived outdoors and at a relaxed pace. Mototaxis fill the streets, the Alameda Perú and the plaza come alive in the cooler evenings, and at weekends and holidays families head to the rivers and bathing spots around the town.

Tingo María eats like the Amazon. The emblem is juane, a large tamale of rice, chicken, olives and egg wrapped in a bijao leaf, eaten by everyone at San Juan. Tacacho con cecina pairs fried green plantain, mashed with salt and pork lard, with cecina, dried and smoked pork. Patarashca is any local fish seasoned and wrapped in banana or bijao leaves, then grilled, baked or boiled; pollo canga is chicken grilled with orange or lime; and inchicapi is a soup of ground peanuts, farm-raised chicken, cassava, maize and sacha culantro.

Drinks are made from the forest's fruit. Aguajina comes from the aguaje palm fruit, a refreshing drink is pressed from the tart cocona, and chapo is a sweet drink of ripe plantain. Masato, made by fermenting cassava in water for about a week, is the traditional drink of the forest. Fruits such as caimito are sold in the markets.

Coffee and cacao grow in the valley around the town. Medicinal drinks of cat's claw, chuchuhuasi, camu camu and the sap called sangre de grado appear alongside the food, as does siete raíces, a drink made from seven roots.