The center city is a lively place to live, work and visit. Cruise ship passengers and day-trippers from the mainland pack Avenida Raphael Melgar, the waterfront road and promenade. However, if you wander a few blocks inland, you'll discover a totally different atmosphere. Here, riots of pink or purple bougainvillea tumble down pastel walls. Tailor shops, key makers, produce markets and tiny family-run restaurants intermingle closely with schools, doctors' offices and private residences.
Church bells toll and children laugh and play soccer in the streets until long after dark.
Although plenty of taxis whiz through the town at all hours, the car is not king here. On Sunday nights, townspeople crowd the large, downtown plaza with its whitewashed flamboyant trees, gazebo, tall clock tower and cooling view of the sea. They come to giggle and flirt, to listen to salsa music and to dance. Parents show off their children, carefully groomed and dressed-up. Older folks sit on one of the many cool, stone benches chatting softly in Mayan and keeping a sharp eye on the scene.