Guayas & Manabí Coast

The Guayas and Manabí coastal strip runs for roughly 700 km along Ecuador's Pacific-facing mainland, from the Colombian border south to the Peruvian frontier. The tidal regime here is mixed semidiurnal with pronounced diurnal inequality: most days deliver two highs and two lows of noticeably unequal amplitude, and during some lunar phases the pattern approaches diurnal — one dominant high and one dominant low per day. Spring range at Salinas, near the tip of the Santa Elena Peninsula, reaches 2.5–3.0 m above Chart Datum; neap range drops to around 1.0–1.5 m. These are modest figures by global standards but large enough to expose extensive sandy flats at low water and to run a significant tidal current through river mouths and estuaries. The Humboldt Current (Corriente de Humboldt) runs northward along the South American Pacific coast, upwelling cold, nutrient-rich water. Sea surface temperatures along the Ecuadorian mainland coast typically run 5–8°C cooler than the latitude would predict — around 18–22°C in the dry season (June–November), rising to 24–26°C during the wet season (December–May) when the Intertropical Convergence Zone migrates south and the upwelling weakens. This cold-upwelling signature explains the remarkably rich marine life: abundant fish, seabirds, and the humpback whales that converge on Machalilla waters between June and September to breed in the slightly warmer Ecuadorian inshore zone. Montañita is Ecuador's premier surf destination — a consistent right-hand point break that works best from mid- to high tide on a solid SW groundswell. Puerto López sits 70 km to the north and is the embarkation point for Isla de la Plata and Machalilla National Park. Salinas, at the peninsula tip, is a sheltered resort bay with a yacht club and the best tide gauge record on this coast. Official tide predictions for the Ecuadorian mainland coast are published by INOCAR (Instituto Oceanográfico de la Armada del Ecuador), based in Guayaquil. The predictions on this site come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model; accuracy is typically within ±45 minutes on timing and ±0.2–0.3 m on height. For navigation or commercial fishing, use INOCAR tables.