The Balsas River ( es, Rio Balsas) or Rio Tucutí is a river of eastern

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

Geography

The Balsas is a tributary of the Tuira (or Darien) river. It rises on the border with Colombia and flows north and then northeast to its confluence with the Tuira. Its headwaters flow through the

Darién National Park Darién National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Darién) is a World Heritage Site in Panama. It is about 325 kilometers from Panama City, and is the most extensive of all national parks of Panama and is one of the most important world heritage sites ...

. A 1903 report on Panama listed the Balsas as one of the more important rivers of the territory of Darien, then in

Panamá Province Panamá is a province of Panama. It is the location of the national capital Panama City, which also serves as the provincial capital. The governor of the province is Judy Meana, appointed by President Laurentino Cortizo and sworn in on 16 April ...

. The report said that gold was obtained from the Balsas. The

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

is Tropical Savannah. The region has an average temperature of and average precipitation of per year. Annual runoff is between . It rains on about 150 days each year. The watershed of the Balsas covers . Average flow at its mouth is . The waters of the Balsa River are more turbid than the waters of the Tuira River, indicating greater amounts of erosion in the Balsa basin. The mouth of the Balsas River has several islets formed by sediment, some with growth of herbaceous vegetation.

Ecology

The river is also called ''Rio de balsas'', after the balsa trees (''

Ochroma lagopus ''Ochroma pyramidale'', commonly known as the balsa tree, is a large, fast-growing tree native to the Americas. It is the sole member of the genus ''Ochroma''. The tree is famous for its wide usage in woodworking, with the name ''balsa'' being ...

'') that were found along its bank. Balsa wood is very light, and is used for rafts. In Spanish, ''balsa'' means "raft". A 1997 study of the middle basin of the river found 40 species of fish in 38 genera and 17 families. The most common species were ', ', ', ' and '. 11 species were endemic.

European exploration

In 1520

Gil González Dávila Gil González Dávila or Gil González de Ávila (b. 1480 – 21 April 1526) was a Spanish conquistador and the first European to explore present-day Nicaragua. Early career González Dávila first appears in historical records in 1508, when he ...

opened a road long from Acla on the Caribbean coast through the mountains to the Balsas River, where he built four ships for use in exploring the Pacific coast of Central America. Due to poor construction, these boats sank when they reached the

Pearl Islands The Pearl Islands (Spanish: Archipiélago de las Perlas or Islas de las Perlas) is a group of 200 or more islands and islets (many tiny and uninhabited) lying about off the Pacific coast of Panama in the Gulf of Panama. Islands The most nota ...

in the

Gulf of Panama The Gulf of Panama ( es, Golfo de Panamá) is a gulf of the Pacific Ocean off the southern coast of Panama, where most of eastern Panama's southern shores adjoin it. The Gulf has a maximum width of , a maximum depth of and the size of . The Pana ...

. González built four more ships there, and set sail on 21 January 1522. In 1572 Captain Esteban de Trejo led an expedition to subdue runaway African slaves, and discovered several Indian towns in the process. He called the inhabitants Churruca Indians after the river than flowed past their towns. to the east of the seat of Churruca, beside the Balsas river, he found about 300 Calegra Indians. They spoke a different language from the Churrucas and prided themselves as being very warlike.

Notes

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