Other nearby settlements on the Nanay River include the villages of Santo Tomás, Padre Cocha, and Santa Clara.

The Nanay belongs entirely to the lowlands, and is very crooked, has a slow current and divides into many canos[a] and strings of lagoons which flood the flat, low areas of country on either side.

It is simply the drainage ditch of districts which are extensively overflowed in the rainy season.

The Nanay is a blackwater river and it has a high fish species richness, including several that are well known from the aquarium industry.

[7] The 2012 floods of the Amazon, Itaya, and Nanay rivers, amid the heaviest rains the region had faced in 40 years, left approximately 80,000 people homeless.