During our stay in Cochabamba, my husband and I were lucky enough to live in the household of an English teacher at San Simon University. Her mother, Doña Isabella, in her mid-70’s, prepared the main meal every day. Well before dawn each morning this lovely woman, in her traditional Bolivian dress, walked out the protective gate to attend Mass after which she went to gather food.

I say “gather” because although each item was bought, not raised by her, she visited a number of different places ranging from her own mother’s house to small markets to individuals who provided single items that she needed for the main meal. About one o’clock six or so adult family members gathered to eat.

We were welcomed to this table of traditional Bolivian foods as one of the family. Soon we realized that we were experiencing botanical treasures we had never tasted before. Our Spanish is poor so we had to work hard to understand the names of the foods correctly and get the descriptions of the plants as she gave them.

Since some of the foods of this region of the Andes are eaten nowhere else and some have names used only in a narrow geographic area, it seemed a shame not to document them as fully as we could in the time we had available. The result is what you see below.

I hope that you might find this dictionary useful both for definitions and for pronunciation. The voice is that of a native speaker. You may use the dictionary as you wish for educational purposes. All feedback will be taken seriously.