La Libertad

La Libertad is a village in the municipality of San Blas, about 13 kilometers east of the port where the coastal lowlands give way to the first hills. At roughly 200 meters above sea level it sits well above the mangroves and estuaries that surround San Blas, on a short branch road off state highway 74, the main road that climbs down from federal Highway 15 to the coast.

It is a mid-sized rural community. The 2020 census counted 1,656 people, 871 men and 785 women, in 525 occupied homes; in 1900 there were fewer than 200 residents, and the village passed a thousand in the 1960s. Most people are Catholic, about half of those over twelve work, and the village has a kindergarten, two schools and a telebachillerato. There are no hotels: the nearest lodgings are on the coast around Matanchén and Aticama, 15 to 18 kilometers away.

Travelers mainly see La Libertad on the way to somewhere else. The birding community of Singayta, with guided walks and boat trips through the mangroves, is about six kilometers to the north, and the hamlet of José María Mercado, known as El Infierno, lies about four kilometers east. The nearest beach, El Borrego, is about 18 kilometers away. The climate is hot and humid, averaging about 24 °C, with rain falling on some 167 days a year, mostly in summer.