It rises on the slopes of Chiles Volcano, elevation 4,698 metres (15,413 ft), on the border of Ecuador and Colombia.

The river flows eastward across the high plateau of El Angel.

The Pasto people lived along the Carchi River in pre-Columbian times.

[3] The Carchi was known as the Angasmayo River by the Incas and the early Spanish colonists.

A natural stone bridge at Rumichaca was the northernmost outpost of the Inca Empire.