River
Hondo River
150 km from source to mouth · Mexico and Belize.
Mexico and BelizeFlows into Chetumal Bay9th longest in Mexico
In numbers
Length
150km
Average flow
130m³/s
Basin
13,500km²
Drop
63m
from 63 m to 0 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
150 km of river and 3 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 63 m
- 46 kmLaguna Azul Falls
- 110 kmSapote Lagoon2.5 km²
- 143 kmFour Mile Lagoon, Río Hondo2.7 km²
- 150 kmChetumal Bayat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River of Central America
At the mouth it carries 127 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 20 seconds. It drops from 63 m to 0 m, 0.4 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 13,500 km², about the size of BS. 146,000 people live in it. Highest water: from August to October; lowest: from February to May. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- ChetumalLargest city on its banks · 169,028 people
- Chetumal International Airport (CTM)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 3 km from the cityCar hire at BZE airport (Belize City)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water1 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to MarchThe best months to visit
Hondo River, month by month
Highest water: from August to October
Lowest water: from February to May. Best months to visit: from December to March.
From about 46 m³/s in the lowest month to 240 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
Hondo River: the basin in numbers
12,740 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 146,000people live in the basin
- 11/km²people per km²
- 152maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,341mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 25.2°Caverage air temperature
- 50%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 84% Forest
- 11% Cropland
- 5% 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
Hondo River: what you find on the way
- 1Ferry piersMuelle Fiscal
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Hondo 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.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
2lakes on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Laguna Azul Fallskm 48
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (2)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Sapote Lagoonkm 1142.5km²
- Four Mile Lagoon, Río Hondokm 1492.7km²
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
Hondo River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (1)
Also: Storroch Creek
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Belize132 km25 m³/s17 km awayBelize RiverBelize290 km200 m³/s105 km awayMopan RiverBelize38 km93 m³/s167 km awayMotagua River
Guatemala486 km310 m³/s307 km awayUlúa River
Honduras358 km440 m³/s293 km awayDulce RiverGuatemala43 km340 m³/s310 km awayPasión RiverGuatemala353 km320 m³/s326 km awayGrijalva RiverMexico480 km2,800 m³/s459 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1494095) · 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 | Cascadyas, 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?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
beaches
Find your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakes
Every lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit 
mountains
Every summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfalls
Every waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit 
islands
Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
rivers
Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyons
Every canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit