Tingo María

Tingo María, also called Rupa-Rupa, city, central Peru. The city lies at an elevation of 2,133 feet (650 metres) on the right bank of the Huallaga River. It is located at the head of navigation of the river’s middle course in an intermediate geographic zone known as a ceja de selva (“eyebrow of the jungle”), part of the Selva Alta (“High Forest”) of Peru’s eastern piedmont, leading down from the Andes to the Amazonian lowlands.

Tingo María was founded in 1932 at a road crossing on the Huallaga. The settlement grew as a transportation centre for the agricultural products of the region—tea, coffee, sugarcane, and bananas—shipping them by road to either Lima on the Pacific coast or to Pucallpa, which lies to the east on the Ucayali River in the Amazon basin. A combination of anti-drug measures and a crop-destroying fungus greatly reduced the amount of coca produced in the upper Huallaga valley, a major supplier to the world coca market in the 1980s.

The nearby Cordillera Azul provides a scenic backdrop that separates Tingo María from the lowlands to the east. More than 100 inches (2,540 mm) of rain fall on the area each year; the humid subtropical forests support local sawmilling, as well as wood-processing and distilling industries, and are the chief attraction of Tingo María National Park (2,000 acres [800 hectares]). Cultural amenities include the University of Tingo María (opened 1968) and a botanical garden. Pop. (2005) 46,610.