Chone's central square is the hub of town life in the way that the plaza mayor functions in virtually every Ecuadorian city — a shaded gathering point surrounded by the church, the municipal buildings, and the older commercial arcades. The square in Chone has a particular character on weekend mornings when the surrounding streets fill with market activity and the town's ranching and farming communities come in from the surrounding countryside.
The cathedral on the east side of the square is an unremarkable modern structure, but the square's trees provide welcome shade in a climate that is hot and humid for most of the year. This is where the rodeo montuvio festival competitions take up the surrounding streets during the local fiestas — typically in the second half of the year — when the working culture of coastal Ecuador is on full display.