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The southern coast of Haiti fronts the Caribbean Sea along both the Tiburon Peninsula and the mainland south of Port-au-Prince, enclosing the Gulf of Gonâve — a sheltered body of water between the peninsula and the main island mass. The tidal regime is Caribbean microtidal — mixed semidiurnal, spring range approximately 0.3 to 0.5 metres — and the small tidal signal means beach conditions are more affected by seasonal Caribbean swell and trade wind fetch than by the tide. The Tiburon Peninsula is one of the most geographically remote and mountainous regions in Haiti — a narrow tongue of land extending westward toward Jamaica, with rugged terrain that historically limited road access and kept the southern coast somewhat isolated from Port-au-Prince. Jacmel, on the southern coast of the peninsula, was historically important as a coffee export port and retains a striking collection of French colonial architecture, including the ironwork balconies and gingerbread facades that make it arguably the most architecturally coherent colonial town in Haiti. The 2010 earthquake, whose epicentre was at Léogâne on the coast northwest of Jacmel, caused significant damage to parts of the historic district but left many buildings standing. The Caribbean coast south of Port-au-Prince has extensive reef systems that are largely unstudied by modern scientific survey. The offshore islands near Les Cayes — including Île-à-Vache — have coral reef and turtle nesting beaches that see limited visitor traffic. The Institut du Bien-Être Social et de Recherches and NOAA's Caribbean regional data serve as reference sources for this coast; Open-Meteo Marine provides gridded tide predictions for TideTurtle.