The Geba is one of West Africa's longest rivers — it rises in the highlands of Guinea (Conakry), runs west across the country, and broadens into the wide tidal estuary that flows past Bissau to the Atlantic. At Bafatá the river is fresh, slow, and several hundred metres wide, with a single iron-truss road bridge at the southern edge of town.
The river bank along the bluff below the colonial old town is a pleasant place to walk at sunset. Fishermen work the river in narrow dugout canoes; a low-water sandbar in the dry season is sometimes used as an impromptu landing. The Bafatá bridge can be closed in the rainy season (July–October) when the water rises high enough to threaten the deck.