Pedasí tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 17:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are America/Panama local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Last spring tide on Wed 06 May (range 2.2m). Next spring tide on Tue 12 May (range 2.4m). Next neap on Sat 09 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Pedasí sits near the tip of the Azuero Peninsula, where Panama's dry arc meets the Pacific. The Azuero is one of the driest and most distinctly seasonal regions in Central America: annual rainfall of 1,200 to 1,800 mm, a defined dry season running December through April, and an inland landscape of cattle pasture, sugar cane, and traditional town centres built around Catholic church plazas. The town of Pedasí itself is small — a few thousand permanent residents — but it is a well-preserved example of a traditional Azuero settlement, with a main square, colonial-era church, and low-rise buildings in a grid pattern that has not been overwhelmed by resort development. The Azuero Peninsula's traditional culture is one of the most intact in Panama: the Carnival celebrations in the Azuero towns (the Carnaval in La Villa de Los Santos and the Carnaval in Las Tablas, 60 km north of Pedasí) are considered the most elaborate and traditional in Panama, drawing national and international visitors in February. Pedasí's own Carnival is smaller but follows the same tradition. The coast near Pedasí faces the Pacific southwest and receives swell from both the South Pacific storm tracks (primary) and the northwest North Pacific (secondary, in the dry season). The primary surf beach in the area is Playa Venao, 20 km south on the Azuero tip, a W-SW facing beach break that works on southerly groundswell; tidal range here is approximately 4.5 m, and the tide effect on wave quality is significant — low tide exposes the rock and sand bottom, reducing wave shape, while the incoming mid-tide is generally preferred. The town of Pedasí is the service base for both Playa Venao and the diving and snorkelling around Isla Iguana Wildlife Refuge, 5 km offshore from Pedasí itself. Isla Iguana is a small island with a coral reef (one of the least disturbed on the Pacific coast of Panama), a colony of magnificent frigatebirds, and a beach that sea turtles (olive ridley, Lepidochelys olivacea) use for nesting. Boat trips from Pedasí's small dock run to Isla Iguana and for whale watching from July onward. Humpback whales aggregate in the waters off the Azuero tip from July through November — the convergence of the Humboldt and Panama Bight currents concentrates the food supply, and the Azuero coast is one of the most reliable humpback congregation points in the eastern Pacific. The macrotidal Pacific regime at Pedasí (spring range ~4.5 m) means low-water beach access to Isla Iguana and the tidal flats near the Tonosí River mouth varies significantly. At spring lows, the approach to the island's beach is through shallow exposed flats; small boat landing requires timing around mid-to-high tide. The dry season (December–April) transforms the Azuero coast: vegetation browns, dust covers the roads, and the dry wind from the north (the Panamanian Norte) keeps the coast dry and cool by tropical standards. The wet season (May–November) brings green hills, higher surf, and whale season simultaneously. Tide predictions at Pedasí come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model; accuracy is typically ±45 min on timing and ±0.2–0.3 m on height. AMP (Autoridad Marítima de Panamá) publishes the official Pacific-side tide tables for the Azuero coast. The Azuero Peninsula's position on the Pacific dry arc has shaped its culture as much as its ecology. The region was settled and cleared for cattle ranching and subsistence agriculture earlier than most of Panama's interior; the lowland forest that once covered the peninsula has been almost entirely converted over four centuries, with cattle ranching the dominant land use. What remains is a region with a strong agricultural identity, a distinct craft tradition (the pollera dress, the pintao hat, devil mask festivals), and a coast that has been relatively insulated from the mass tourism development that reached the Pacific coast of Costa Rica in the 1990s and 2000s. That insulation is partly geographical — the Azuero is not on the way to anywhere else — and partly cultural: the communities here have been deliberate about the pace of development. Pedasí's reputation as a desirable relocation destination for foreign retirees (primarily North American and European) has grown since the 2010s, which has brought investment in accommodation and services without transforming the town's essential character.