Puntarenas

Puntarenas province runs the central and southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica, from the Gulf of Nicoya south through Quepos and Manuel Antonio, the Osa Peninsula and the Golfo Dulce, and on to the Panama border at the Río Sixaola. It is by far the longest coastal province in the country and includes some of the richest marine ecosystems in Central America — the Corcovado wilderness on the Osa Peninsula, the protected waters of the Golfo Dulce, and the Marino Ballena marine park where humpback whales calve in the boreal winter. The tide signature here is mixed semidiurnal with a large range. Mean range at the Quepos and Puntarenas city gauges is around 1.8 to 2.5 metres, with spring tides pushing past 2.7 to 3.0 metres on the largest swings and neap tides compressing toward 1.0. Two highs and two lows of unequal size each day, twelve and a half hours apart. The Gulf of Nicoya at the northern end of the province is partially enclosed and reshapes the open-coast tide signal as it propagates inland — Puntarenas city on the long sand spit at the mouth of the gulf reads the open Pacific tide closely, while the inner gulf at Punta Morales and the head of the gulf at the mouth of the Río Tempisque runs slightly later. The wide tide range exposes the headland tide pools at Punta Catedral in Manuel Antonio National Park, the broad sand at Playa Espadilla Sur and Playa Manuel Antonio, the working pangas-and-marina harbour at Quepos, and the long beach at Dominical. Sport fishers running out of Quepos and Los Sueños at Playa Herradura target sailfish and marlin on the offshore current; estuary anglers in the Río Naranjo and Río Savegre mouths read the incoming tide for snook. The Costa Rican Instituto Geográfico Nacional and CIMAR at Universidad de Costa Rica are the regional authorities. Open-Meteo Marine drives the gridded predictions on this site.