River
Pastaza River
710 km from source to mouth · Peru and Ecuador.
Peru and EcuadorFlows into Marañón River8th longest in Peru
In numbers
Length
710km
Average flow
2,300m³/s
Basin
41,000km²
Drop
2,523m
from 2,648 m to 125 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
710 km of river and 11 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 2,648 m
- 3 kmSan Miguel10,838 people
- 53 kmChambo Rivertributary
- 53 kmPatate Rivertributary
- 57 kmBaños14,100 people
- 61 kmCascada Chamana42 m
- 68 kmManto de la Novia
- 71 kmAgoyán
- 73 kmCascada el Pailón del Diablo(dueño el walter)
- 137 kmPuyo Rivertributary
- 348 kmBobonaza Rivertributary
- 429 kmLaguna Naranjal0.5 km²
- 710 kmMarañón Riverat 125 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Tributary of the Marañón River in Ecuador and Peru
At the mouth it carries 2,326 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.1 seconds. It drops from 2,648 m to 125 m, 3.6 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 41,000 km², about the size of CH. 1.3 million 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
- BañosLargest city on its banks · 14,100 people
- Cotopaxi International Airport (LTX)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 58 km from the cityCar hire at UIO airport (Quito)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water6 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to February and from August to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Pastaza River, month by month
Highest water: from April to July
Best months to visit: from December to February and from August to September.
From about 1,800 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,000 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
Pastaza River: the basin in numbers
42,459 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 30/km²people per km²
- 1,088maverage altitude of the basin
- 2,285mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 21.3°Caverage air temperature
- 10%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 69% Forest
- 5% Cropland
- 14% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
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
Pastaza River: what you find on the way
- 2WeirsRepresa Agoyan
- 33WaterfallsSiete Choros, Cascada Ines María, Cascada de la Virgen and 30 more
- 3Boat ramps
- 3Ferry piersPuerta principal
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Pastaza 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.
4waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
1lake on its wayLakeyas
2mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (4)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Cascada Chamanakm 6342m
- Manto de la Noviakm 70
- Agoyánkm 73
- Cascada el Pailón del Diablo(dueño el walter)km 75
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Laguna Naranjalkm 4420.5km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (2)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Cumbijín13 km away
- Guangotasín13 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
Pastaza River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Marañón RiverPeru1,737 km16,700 m³/sTributaries (8)
Also: Bobonaza River, Chambo River, Patate River, Topo River, Puyo River, Verde River, Huasaga River, Huitoyacu River
In the same basin
Brazil6,400 km209,000 m³/sRio NegroBrazil2,250 km30,000 m³/sMadeira RiverBrazil1,450 km31,200 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/sPutumayo RiverBrazil1,610 km7,000 m³/sWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q685475) · 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, 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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