Hi Paul -

I just finished my two years of service as a Youth and Families volunteer in La Libertad. You've probably heard that Santa Elena is now its own province, separate from el Gran Guayas. In terms of changes in La Libertad, it is now a separate canton from Salinas and has grown to 75,000 people (official estimate, 90,000 including the outer barrios). TransEsmeraldas has a line running to Libertad/Salinas from Quito. The highway from Guayaquil is now paved and it takes about 2 and a half hours to get there from Guayaquil (including their new direct buses which were apparently imported from China! So says my old counterpart anyway). The malecon in La Libertad is about half way finished. Let me know what else you're interested in hearing. I'm in contact with a few recent PCVs from that area...My email is nicholas.chan@stanfordalumni.org