Ancón, Lima Region 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/Lima local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Ancón sits 43 km north of Lima on the Peruvian Pacific coast, tucked inside one of the calmest bays on a coastline that otherwise offers little shelter. The headlands on either side of Ancón Bay deflect the south-southwest swell that runs up from the Southern Ocean, and the bay floor shelves gradually, keeping wave energy low even when the open coast outside is running 1.0–1.5 m. That geometry is why Club Regatas La Punta chose Ancón Bay as its primary open-water regatta venue: the competition conditions are predictable, the water surface is readable, and coaches in chase boats can reach any part of the course in under four minutes. The tide here is small by global standards. Peru sits on the eastern edge of the South Pacific, where the open-ocean geometry and the continental shelf configuration produce a semidiurnal pattern with a mean spring range of 0.5–1.0 m. High water on a typical spring day reaches around 0.9 m above chart datum; low water drops to roughly 0.1 m. The Humboldt Current — a cold, nutrient-rich upwelling system running north along the Peruvian coast — influences water temperature more than tidal state does: surface temperatures at Ancón stay in the 15–18°C range year-round, with cooler readings during strong upwelling events in the austral winter. Anglers working the rocky points at the south end of the bay time their sessions to the incoming tide, when corvina (Cilus gilberti) and lorna drum move into the shallower water to feed. The two hours before high water produce the most consistent action. The bay entrance is marked by Caballeros Island, a low rocky outcrop at the northern lip that provides a reference bearing for sailors and a perch for Peruvian pelicans and guanay cormorants. From the beach, Lima's urban mass is visible to the south on clear days — the San Cristóbal hill above central Lima is the easiest landmark to fix. The beach itself is a protected semicircular arc of dark sand backed by a promenade. Families from Lima arrive in numbers from December through March, the Peruvian summer; the water is calm enough for small children and the bay currents are negligible. Ancón carries historical weight that most Peruvian resort towns do not. The town's government building on the main square was the site of the signing of the Treaty of Ancón on 20 October 1883, which ended the War of the Pacific between Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. Under the treaty's terms, Chile gained permanent sovereignty over the Tarapacá region to the south, and Bolivia ceded its entire Pacific coastline — the landlocked status Bolivia still holds today. The building where the treaty was signed is a modest 19th-century structure, unremarkable except for what it witnessed. A plaque on the facade marks the date. Directly behind the town, and largely invisible to visitors focused on the beach, lies the Ancón archaeological zone — one of the most important pre-Columbian burial sites on the Peruvian coast. Excavated in the 1870s by German archaeologists Wilhelm Reiss and Alphons Stübel, the site produced hundreds of burial bundles containing textiles, ceramics, and tools from cultures spanning several centuries before the Inca expansion. The Ancón textiles — fine cotton and wool cloths with geometric and figurative designs — are held in museum collections in Berlin, Lima, and London. The site itself is not open for general tourism, but the quality of what came out of it placed Ancón on the map of Andean archaeology. For paddlers, the bay is accessible year-round. Kayaks and stand-up paddleboards launch from the southern end of the beach where the gradient is gentlest. The circuit around Caballeros Island at the bay mouth takes approximately 90 minutes from the beach at a relaxed pace; the water between the island and the mainland runs 0.5–1.0 knots on the ebb, manageable for intermediate paddlers. Stay in the lee of the island on the return — the exposed north face picks up any swell running from the northwest. Photographers find the best light in the late afternoon when the sun drops toward the Pacific and the headlands cast shadows across the bay. The pelican roost on Caballeros Island is most active at dusk. For the beach itself, the low tidal range means the waterline position changes only half a metre across the tidal cycle — you can set up at any state of tide without worrying about being stranded or swamped. Tide data for Ancón, Lima Region comes from the Open-Meteo Marine API, a gridded model product. Timing accuracy is ±45 minutes, height accuracy ±0.3 m — usable for trip planning, not for navigation.