River
Putumayo River
1,610 km from source to mouth · 4 countries.
Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and ColombiaFlows into Amazon River
In numbers
Length
1,610km
Average flow
7,000m³/s
Basin
123,000km²
Drop
171m
from 217 m to 46 m
Countries
4
The journey
From source to mouth
1,610 km of river and 7 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 217 m
- 18 kmSan Miguel Rivertributary
- 102 kmGüeppí Rivertributary
- 171 kmPuerto Leguízamo20,045 people
- 697 kmSan Antonio del Estrecho8,000 people
- 713 kmLaguna Esperanza1.0 km²
- 839 kmIgara Paraná Rivertributary
- 1,230 kmCotuhé Rivertributary
- 1,610 kmAmazon Riverat 46 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of the Amazon in South America
At the mouth it carries 7,000 m³/s on average: 2.8 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 217 m to 46 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 123,000 km², about the size of ER. 714,000 people live in it. Highest water: from April to July. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Puerto LeguízamoLargest city on its banks · 20,045 people
- Tres De Mayo Airport (PUU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 206 km from the cityCar hire at RBR airport (Rio Branco)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water8 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Putumayo River, month by month
Highest water: from April to July
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 5,400 m³/s in the lowest month to 9,300 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Putumayo River: the basin in numbers
120,994 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 714,000people live in the basin
- 6/km²people per km²
- 235maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,932mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.5°Caverage air temperature
- 20%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 86% Forest
- 1% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Putumayo River: what you find on the way
- 5Boat ramps
- 1Ferry piersMuelle secundario
- 2MarinasPuerto (secundario) Nariño, Puerto de Marcos
- 26River beachesIsla Peña Colorada, Isla Peña Blanca, Isla Remolino and 23 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.4 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Putumayo River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Laguna Esperanzakm 7351.0km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Putumayo River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Amazon RiverBrazil6,400 km209,000 m³/sTributaries (13)
Also: Cotuhé River, Igara Paraná River, San Miguel River, Guamués River, Pureté River, Güeppí River, Yaguas River, Río Caucayá, Algodón River, Angusilla River, Campuya River, Eré River, Yubineto River
In the same basin
Brazil2,250 km30,000 m³/sMadeira RiverBrazil1,450 km31,200 m³/sMarañón RiverPeru1,737 km16,700 m³/sUcayali RiverPeru1,460 km12,600 m³/sJapurá RiverBrazil2,820 km13,900 m³/sXingu RiverBrazil1,640 km9,700 m³/sMamoré RiverBrazil1,930 km11,600 m³/sJuruá RiverBrazil3,100 km4,800 m³/sTapajós RiverBrazil1,930 km13,000 m³/sPurus RiverBrazil2,960 km8.4 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q213782) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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