Thanks, Dell. That name has bothered me from the first time I saw it. Years ago I did check a Peruvian atlas for a matching place name, but for some reason I came up with Paramon, not Paramonga. While in my deluded state I thought the etymology was paramon + the Greek word for earth gaia (spelled in Latin gaea). How did I miss Paramonga: a Google search turned up loads of hits. But the word is still spelled funny. If it is meant to be Paramonga + i + a, and if we treat Paramonga as an aboriginal word not declined in the style of Latin words, and if the i is meant to be the standard i connective vowel used to make Latin compound words, then we have three vowels in a row: a-i-a. Something's got to give. Is it meant to be pronounced as a six syllable word: pa-ra-mon-ga-i-a? I'll bet a lot of people pronounce it as a five syllable word - pa-ra-mon-gai-a as if it were spelled paramongaja. Hmmmm..... Whatever, it's still near the top of my list. And thanks again for straightening me out. Jim McKenney