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Putumayo is a department of Colombia which resides in the Amazonia Region. It is in the south-west of the country, bordering Ecuador and Peru. Its capital is Mocoa.
The word putumayo comes from the Quechua language. The verb putuy means "to spring forth" or "to burst out", and mayo is a variant of mayu, meaning river. Thus it means "gushing river".
Putumayo is bounded by the Caquetá River on the northeast, Ecuador on the south, and Peru on the southeast. It consists of forested lowlands, except where it rises abruptly into the Andes on the west. The department is thought to have great petroleum reserves. Oil is piped from Puerto Asís, along the Putumayo River, over the Andes westward to cloud-steeped Andean flanks, which feed the rivers that form a large part of the Amazon system. The highest amounts of precipitation, up to 140 inches (3,500 millimetres), are recorded in the upper Putumayo along the Colombian border.
Putumayo is a troubled department due to guerrilla groups and a coca economy.
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