River
Guaviare River
1,497 km from source to mouth · Colombia.
ColombiaFlows into Orinoco River2nd longest in Colombia
In numbers
Length
1,497km
Average flow
8,200m³/s
Basin
140,000km²
Drop
1,756m
from 1,833 m to 77 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
1,497 km of river and 43 stops on the way: 3 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,833 m
- 281 kmPuerto Concordia8,086 people
- 282 kmLaguna La Herradura0.5 km²
- 290 kmAriari Rivertributary
- 305 kmLaguna Grande0.7 km²
- 307 kmSan José del Guaviare68,878 people
- 334 kmLaguna Guijalpa0.4 km²
- 381 kmLaguna El Espejo0.7 km²
- 420 kmLaguna de Los Monstruos2.1 km²
- 535 kmLaguna Caimán1.7 km²
- 553 kmLaguna El Salado0.8 km²
- 575 kmLaguna Sapora0.6 km²
- 619 kmLaguna Garza (lanaw sa Colombia, Departamento del Vichada, lat 2,87, long -71,00)1.3 km²
- 674 kmLaguna Sapuara1.9 km²
- 719 kmLaguna Guacamaya0.4 km²
- 779 kmLaguna La Paloma1.5 km²
- 795 kmLaguna Ciéga1.0 km²
- 811 kmLaguna Totumal0.9 km²
- 835 kmLaguna Garza0.7 km²
- 865 kmLaguna Negra Piloni2.0 km²
- 874 kmLaguna Guaco1.8 km²
- 898 kmLaguna Raya0.5 km²
- 919 kmLaguna Tigre0.8 km²
- 923 kmLaguna Colorada0.6 km²
- 965 kmLaguna Matamata1.7 km²
- 1,014 kmLaguna Tonina1.8 km²
- 1,027 kmLaguna Caribe0.8 km²
- 1,056 kmLaguna Marimonda1.7 km²
- 1,059 kmLaguna Curvina2.2 km²
- 1,067 kmLaguna Laguna Caimán2.2 km²
- 1,067 kmLaguna Santa Rosa0.7 km²
- 1,098 kmLago Matamata2.1 km²
- 1,109 kmLaguna Sastre3.8 km²
- 1,136 kmLaguna Arrecifal1.8 km²
- 1,148 kmLaguna Laguna Cumaralito0.7 km²
- 1,182 kmLaguna Cumaral1.7 km²
- 1,210 kmLaguna Pájaro2.5 km²
- 1,228 kmLaguna Hueso0.3 km²
- 1,231 kmLaguna Rompida4.0 km²
- 1,282 kmLaguna Guarura1.7 km²
- 1,372 kmLaguna Negra0.8 km²
- 1,391 kmLaguna Macasabe3.0 km²
- 1,395 kmInírida Rivertributary
- 1,422 kmSan Fernando de Atabapo11,929 people
- 1,497 kmOrinoco Riverat 77 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Colombia
At the mouth it carries 8,200 m³/s on average: 3.3 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 1,833 m to 77 m, 1.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 140,000 km², about the size of NP. 416,000 people live in it. Highest water: from July to September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- San José del GuaviareLargest city on its banks · 68,878 people
- Jorge E. Gonzalez Torres Airport (SJE)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 2 km from the cityCar hire at BOG airport (Bogota)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water5 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Guaviare River, month by month
Highest water: from July to September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to January.
From about 2,100 m³/s in the lowest month to 16,700 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
Guaviare River: the basin in numbers
151,602 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 416,000people live in the basin
- 3/km²people per km²
- 285maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,788mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.2°Caverage air temperature
- 31%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 75% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 21% 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
Guaviare River: what you find on the way
- 2WaterfallsWaterfall Esmeralda, Waterfall Angostura
- 5Ferry piers
- 2River beachesIsla Del Diablo, Isla Caiman
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.5 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Guaviare 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.
38lakes on its wayLakeyas
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (38)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Laguna Curvinakm 1,0352.2km²
- Laguna Laguna Caimánkm 1,0432.2km²
- Laguna Sastrekm 1,0843.8km²
- Laguna Arrecifalkm 1,1101.8km²
- Laguna Cumaralkm 1,1551.7km²
- Laguna Pájarokm 1,1822.5km²
- Laguna Rompidakm 1,2034.0km²
- Laguna Macasabekm 1,3593.0km²
30 more on LakeyasLakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Serranía de La Lindosa11 km away470m
- Cerro Azul12 km away322m
- Serranía de San José5.5 km away
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
Guaviare River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Orinoco River
Venezuela2,140 km30,000 m³/sTributaries (3)
Also: Inírida River, Guayabero River, Ariari River
Nearby
Rivers nearby
BrazilWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1047596) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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, Peakyas — 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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