River · Costa Rica
Térraba River
The Térraba River is the longest river in Costa Rica. It collects rain from the green Talamanca mountains and carries it across the southern lowlands into the Pacific Ocean.
Picture credit: belemita@gmail.com (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Térraba River?
The river starts here: Talamanca mountains of southern Costa Rica, where the General and the Coto Brus join.
It ends in the Pacific Ocean.
Countries on the river: Costa Rica.
The story behind it
This river has two names: upstream people call it the General, and after it meets the Coto Brus it becomes the Térraba. That is also why books give different lengths for it, since not everyone counts the same starting point. Rain falls almost every afternoon in the mountains above, so the water can rise very fast and turn from clear green to thick brown in a single storm. Near the sea the river spreads into the Térraba-Sierpe wetlands, the largest mangrove forest in Central America, where crocodiles glide between the roots and crabs click on the mud. Scarlet macaws fly screeching over the treetops. Indigenous communities, among them the Brörán and Boruca people, have lived along the banks for centuries and still tell stories about the river in their own languages.
Questions children ask
How long is the Térraba River?
It is usually given as about 160 km long. Because the upper part carries another name, different sources count the river differently.
Which country does the Térraba River flow through?
It lies entirely in Costa Rica, in the south of the country. Its water comes from the Talamanca range close to the border with Panama.
Where does the Térraba River flow into the sea?
It reaches the Pacific Ocean on Costa Rica's south coast. Before the open water it splits into channels that wind through a huge mangrove forest.
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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