Bolivia 
In numbers.
88m
Height
OpenStreetMap
12m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Dec–Mar
Best months
10MW
Water power
estimate
The water at Arco Iris Falls, month by month
It roars from January to March.
The fullest months: from January to March. The thinnest: from June to October.
- 24 m³/sJan
- 27 m³/sFeb
- 26 m³/sMar
- 17 m³/sApr
- 9.1 m³/sMay
- 4.6 m³/sJun
- 3.2 m³/sJul
- 3.1 m³/sAug
- 4.0 m³/sSep
- 8.6 m³/sOct
- 14 m³/sNov
- 20 m³/sDec
From about 3.1 m³/s in the lowest month to 27 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from December to March.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall in Bolivia
Arco Iris Falls is a waterfall in Bolivia. The water falls 88 m over a front 20 m wide. It lies within Noel Kempff Mercado National Park. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Getting there.
- Brigadeiro Camarão Airport (BVH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 152 km in a straight lineCar hire in SucreDiscover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From December to Marchbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
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.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
10 MW
About 12 m³/s falling 88 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- as much as 3.4 large wind turbines
- enough to power about 2,600 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 89 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 86 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- —viewpoints
- —waymarked walking routes
- —car parks
- —swimming spots
- —picnic sites
- —toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 1other named waterfalls within 4 kmCatarata Federico Ahlfeld
- —caves
- —campsites
- —hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
- —restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 28 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 30 | 33 | 35 | 36 | 34 | 31 | 29 |
| Night °C | 22 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 19 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 233 | 253 | 228 | 109 | 56 | 11 | 8 | 22 | 48 | 127 | 172 | 226 |
| Wet days | 27 | 25 | 25 | 17 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 16 | 21 | 26 |
| Sun h/day | 5.1 | 4.7 | 5.7 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 8.0 | 8.7 | 8.0 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 5.6 | 5.1 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (329 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 84% | 148% | 15% | 51% | 41% | 45% | 36% | 217% | 35% | 90% | 65% | 76% |
| 2021 | 88% | 54% | 108% | 96% | 23% | 168% | 541% | 50% | 63% | 26% | 188% | 183% |
| 2022 | 139% | 108% | 77% | 28% | 105% | 1,118% | 2,226% | 184% | 182% | 122% | 94% | 163% |
| 2023 | 89% | 54% | 88% | 43% | 62% | 116% | 0% | 12% | 43% | 64% | 50% | 58% |
| 2024 | 88% | 58% | 38% | 74% | 19% | 5% | 0% | 0% | 90% | 24% | 83% | 72% |
| 2025 | 103% | 76% | 50% | 54% | 59% | 182% | 0% | 26% | 68% | 23% | 50% | 60% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Arco Iris Falls
Bolivia
- 88 mHeight
- 12 m³/sAverage flow
- Dec–MarBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q8342787) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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