Yet this square in the center of Santa Marta, a port city along the Caribbean coast of Colombia, was not always a streetlamp-lighted refuge of romance.
It is also planning to dredge a series of access channels for ports, and build a railway that will transport coal from central Colombia to the Caribbean harbour of Santa Marta.
On the other side of Santa Marta lies el Rodadero, a cancun-like strip of stylish restaurants, open-air markets and high-rise hotels along beaches that fill with well-to-do locals on weekends.
The number of international visitors to Colombia in 2009 spiked 17 percent from the previous year, helped along by the emergence of former rebel hideouts like Santa Marta as new tourist destinations.
The number of international visitors to Colombia in 2009 spiked 17 percent from the previous year, helped along by the emergence of former rebel hideouts like Santa Marta as new tourist destinations.