River · Panama
Río Chucunaque
Río Chucunaque is the longest river in Panama. It winds through the rainforest of the Darién region and flows into the Río Tuira, which carries its water on to Bahía de San Miguel.
Picture credit: User:Janibeth Miranda (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Río Chucunaque?
The river starts here: Serranía del Darién, in the east of Panama.
It ends in the Río Tuira, then Bahía de San Miguel.
Countries on the river: Panama.
The story behind it
The Chucunaque flows through Darién, a wild corner of Panama where thick rainforest still covers most of the land. Hardly any roads reach this area, so people travel by boat along the slow brown water. The river passes villages of the Emberá and Wounaan, who build their houses on stilts because the water rises fast in the rainy season. Herons, caimans and howler monkeys live on the banks, and fish caught in the morning land in the cooking pot the same evening. In the dry months the channel grows narrow and sandbanks appear in the middle. Further down the Chucunaque joins the bigger Río Tuira, and together they reach the Bahía de San Miguel on the Pacific coast. For many families here the river is road, market and playground all at once.
Questions children ask
How long is the Río Chucunaque?
The Río Chucunaque is 231 km long. That makes it the longest river in Panama, even though it is short compared with the giants of South America.
Which countries does the Río Chucunaque flow through?
The river stays in a single country: Panama. Its whole course lies in the Darién province, close to the border with Colombia.
Where does the Río Chucunaque flow into?
It flows into the Río Tuira. The Tuira then opens into Bahía de San Miguel, a wide bay on the Pacific side of Panama.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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