Orosi lookout
Valley panorama.
Peloy (Allan H.M.) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Peloy (Allan H.M.) — CC BY-SA 3.0 · The LEAF Project — CC BY-SA 2.0
A broad green valley carved by the Reventazón River south-east of Cartago, its slopes covered in terraced coffee farms, fields and forest and ringed by mountains, one of central Costa Rica's loveliest country landscapes and one of its quietest, away from the crowds. From the Orosi lookout on the road down into the valley, a panorama spreads over the winding river, the villages and the lake. Orosi village has a small white eighteenth-century church, one of the oldest still in use in the country, and simple hot springs. A road loops around the valley past the wide Cachí reservoir, the colonial ruins of the Ujarrás church in a green field, and coffee farms you can visit to learn how coffee is grown and roasted. Nearby, Tapantí National Park holds dense rainforest and rivers. The best way to visit is by car or on a day tour from San José or Cartago. The roads are narrow and winding.
Valley panorama.
And Ujarrás ruins.
Growing and roasting.
South-east of Cartago, about an hour and a half from San José
By car or on a day tour from San José, starting at the Orosi lookout and looping past Cachí lake and the Ujarrás ruins.