Border Run - Part 2

The Orosi Valley is a beautiful and peaceful destination, located just outside Cartago and south of the San Jose metro area.  It's like a completely different world from the hustle and bustle of the city.  Many Ticos make it a day trip on the weekends just to get out of the city.

To give you a geographic reference for this post, here is a map of the area in which we spent these few days of our border run:

And here, also is a link to the Garmin map of our trip around the valley:  Orosi Valley Loop
We came in from Cartago, through Paraiso (upper left, above).  It was getting up on lunch time and we, of course, already had our sights set on a particular place on our food itinerary.  My personal travel agent (and wife) had read about a great restaurant that we had on our 'places to eat while off the island' list.  The Sanchiri Hotel y Restaurante sits high up on a hillside overlooking the Orosi Valley.  The views are breathtaking, even during this time of year when it's so damn dry.  We enjoyed the views and a fantastic lunch, as well as watching a very ingenious hedgehog sip lemonade through a straw out of a Tom Collins glass.

What an inviting little valley

Looking up from the bottom of the twisty road.  We ate where that open window is

After lunch we headed down… down... down the steep road to the valley floor.  At one point early on the descent we pulled off to take in the views.

But wait, there's more valley that way

Soon enough we arrived in the little town of Orosi.  Check in time wasn't for a few hours yet but we pulled off the main road to scout out the location of our place for later.  After swinging by the hotel, we left Orosi to drive the loop.  Heading south out of town, we missed our turn at Beneficio Orlich, a coffee finca (plantation) and processing plant.  The Orosi Valley is renowned for their coffee, by the way - it's delicious!  We reached the gate to the Rio Macho power plant before realizing we were on the wrong road.  Meh.  Flipped around, backtracked and made the correct turn toward the bridge over the Rio Reventazón (labeled on the map as 'Rio Grande de Orosi', for reasons unbeknownst to me).

The bridge that spans the river was pretty cool!  One lane only, a guard on one end that I suppose controls traffic on an 'as needed' basis.  Bex! got out and walked across so she could take pictures of me driving over.  We got caught up in Orosi Valley rush hour, however - another car came up behind me.  So I couldn't dawdle!  

I call it 'Puente Turnádose'

That one at a time thing must only be a suggestion.

After picking up my cute hitchhiker, we drove through the small village of Poloma.  Then we pulled over to check out an incredible footbridge that runs from the east side of the river to the town of Orosi on the other side.  It's the dotted line you can see on the map that extends into the right side of the Orosi inset rectangle.  

This bridge is even smaller than the last one.

"Come back!!"  "But I just want to see what's around this corner."
Bex! crossing Rio Reventazón toward Orosi

After exploring the footbridge, we continued the meandering drive through the valley.  The road follows the river for a while then cuts east where it hugs Lago Cachi.  This lake is formed by the Cachi Dam, which supplies hydroelectric power in Costa Rica.  
[Note: If you have any dam questions, I'd be happy to get back to you with the dam answers.]

The lake is all thanks to those little blue things; the green you can see is actually the lily pad covered surface of the lake

We decided to stop at La Casona del Cafetal for coffee because, well, I wanted to and I was driving.  Seriously, this place is pretty great, a large coffee finca with stunning views overlooking the lake, nature trails, a playground, and paddleboat rentals.  We shared a dessert, a dee-lish flan that went really well with our coffee.  Yes, I said 'our' coffee.  My tea-loving wife actually had her very own cup of coffee!!  When in Rome… and all that, I suppose.  It was extra cool because they serve - nay, present - the coffee like this:

Note the presentation includes the color of the Costa Rican flag

They had vines growing on trellises around the restaurant with these huge seed pod things that I bet contain some sort of alien life form:

File under 'C' for 'Creepy, Cool'

The artistic landscape helped the coffee and flan taste extra good

After gettin' our caffeine on we drove to the Cachi Dam and got a few pics there.  The Cachi Gorge is pretty amazing, from everything we've read - no time to explore it this trip but maybe another time.  

No diving allowed

This is not the workplace for ladder-phobes

After that it was on to Las Ruinas de Ujarrás, the site of an old church that was originally built in the 1500's.  Rather than reinvent the wheel, you can just read this from a sign on site:

Or, if that's just too many words, you can look at the pictures on this sign.  It doesn't tell you anything about the history of the church, however.

Adam and Eve are not welcome here

The Costa Ricans have this great habit of building parks around ruined churches 

We LOVE these old churches and their two foot thick walls!

The timber over the window (top) is about 8" thick; note the small cross on what would have been the altar

This church had many arches, these were a rather tricky building technique back then!

After touring the grounds at the ruins and tipping the guy who offered to keep an eye on our car for us while we did so, we left the valley floor and started up the hill to finish the loop.  To give you an idea of 'up', this road sign was pretty close to spot on.  The ol' Daihatsu Bego barely made it!  Up until this point, it seemed like a pretty nice road for a bike ride.

This sign is not an exaggeration.

After getting to the top, we felt like the car deserved a rest so we stopped at a mirador (viewpoint) that looks over the Ujarras area.

Five minutes from the church ruins, as the crow flies or the road climbs; the building right in the middle of this picture is the old church we had just visited

We made our way back to Orosi and checked into our room.  We stayed at the Montaña Linda in their Dragonfly Guest House.  They also run a hostel and a Spanish school here, as well as provide tours and other activities in and around the Orosi Valley.  Our room was very comfortable and the price was a great value, too.  Four thumbs up!  That evening, we had dinner at the Bar y Restaurante Coto, which was recommended to us by Ronan and Mathilde, some folks from France that were also staying in the guest house.  It was a Monday evening so the place was dead.  In fact, we had to walk around the rather expansive restaurant until we found a guy watching TV at the bar.  Then, suddenly, we had a server and we could hear people in the kitchen.  The food was fantastic and they had wine.  Like, real wine.  We were excited by that alone.

I've mentioned the need to be flexible in this part of the world.  Our original itinerary was to visit Volcán Turrialba bright and early Tuesday morning as the first volcano on our three volcano tour this trip.  However, due to increased volcanic activity on Turrialba they had it closed to visitors.  Thankfully, we found this out Monday at the hotel.  So we changed our plans, scratched Turrialba off the list and decided to visit Volcán Irazú instead.  Our new friends from France had plans to visit the same volcano on their way to the bus station in Cartago before heading back to Europe, so we offered to give them a ride.  They were quite happy about this, as it meant they could get an earlier start.  The volcano tour bus they were planning to take didn't depart Orosi until 10 AM and it was, you know, a bus.  

Before leaving Orosi to look at craters, we walked a couple of blocks to the Panadería Suiza, yet another place on our food hit list.  The proprietress, Franzisca, is the most energetic person I've seen in a long time, considering she works 14 hour days.  Seriosuly, she starts baking breads, pastries and other deliciousness at 2 AM, opens for breakfast at 5 AM and we saw her closing up shop around 4-4:30 in the afternoon.  Always with a smile on her face.  We selected a few pastries to fuel us through our morning and promised her we'd be back the next morning for a proper breakfast.

One of the perks of being away from home is that it puts us in a position to meet so many wonderful people.  Sure, you can do this at home but people tend to interact with a core group of family, friends, co-workers and are less likely to seek out newbies, which is completely understandable and fine.  Being in a foreign country I feel almost obligated to introduce myself and strike up conversations with locals and tourists alike.  It's like I don't want to miss the opportunity.  This is one of many new perspectives I hope to bring back with me from this experience.  It was nice to have the company of Ronan and Mathilde on the drive up the mountain, getting to know each other better.  Plus Bex! got to speak French.  (Cue brain cramp in 3… 2… 1…)

Can you spot the hedgehog and the blue footed booby?

Our early start meant we were at the park entrance before the park employees!  The clouds tend to roll in daily around 10 AM or so, so we wanted to have the best chance of seeing some crater bottom.  And we did!  

Proof we didn't miss a minute

The smell of sulfur in the air was a constant reminder we were standing atop an active volcano.  The best result from our early morning arrival was that for most of our visit we were the only ones there.  Being the dry season the crater was empty of the water that usually fills it.  Fine - seeing down to the bottom was pretty sweet!

I tried to channel Kenyon for this shot - D

Yes, I actually wore a jacket!  It was a little chilly!  And no, I'm not about to climb over the fence!

No one tells Beauregard what to do!

After having the run of the place for over an hour, we knew it was time to leave when the tour buses started showing up, one after another after another.  Several of them were loaded with school children on field trips; others with tourists.  It got packed fast!  Time to go!  Besides, the clouds and fog had rolled in so the views were limited.  It was a great visit!

Going with our new friends means we have a rare picture with both of us in it

We drove back down the volcano to Cartago, dropped Mathilde and Ronan off near the bus station and said our goodbyes.  Then we made our way to Costa Rica's Craft Brewing Company, a very cool place just outside of Cartago.  I worked at a craft brewery, Widmer Brothers Brewing, for almost 19 years and enjoy seeing small breweries in action.  We received a full-on company history lesson and tour with Fabiana, our tour guide.  She is awesome, by the way!  

A great tour and a great time!

Except they made us tend bar to work off the beer we drank.

Then we were fortunate enough to intercept Christopher, the head brewer, who hails from Colorado USA.  Brewing is largely about timing and a brewery this size does a lot of work by hand, with very little automation.  He was gracious with his time and stopped to chat with us.  Once he discovered our roots in the beer biz (Bex! also worked at Widmer for five years), Christopher started bringing some samples out to us at the bar, samples that weren't on the tasting menu, in particular a rum barrel-aged barley wine and a Pacific Northwest-style IPA.  (That IPA tasted like home!)  Plus we enjoyed the CRCB's flagship Libertas and La Segua as well as a couple of others.  This visit made me realize that I would love to work at a small brewery again someday - not the overly corporate, shareholder driven beast that my old company has become but something more like CRCB.  It is a fun industry!

Look familiar - Kurt, Rob, Doug, Joe, Ike, Ben??  Wait, never mind - it's the Rose Garden!

Buzz in hand, we drove up the road a half mile or so to a recommended lunch spot.  Food and a Coca-Cola were a huge help!  After that, we drove back to Orosi and our room, where we relaxed the afternoon away - and, okay, slept off the brewery visit.  Instead of going out to eat, we hit a couple of stores for fruit, veggies, some cheese and ate dinner at the guesthouse.  With a bottle of wine and plenty of water, it was a very nice meal.  Needless to say, we slept very well that night!

The next morning, we kept our promise and visited Franzisca for breakfast.  We ordered what might be called in brunch-crazed Portland a 'breakfast board' - three different fresh baked breads, meats, cheese, fruit and drinks.  I tacked on a couple of scrambled eggs and it was perfect.  Strong, black Orosi Valley coffee for me, tea for Bex! and fresh juice for us both.  Franzisca kept the coffee refills coming, too.  It was fantastic.  After we ate, and knowing we were hitting the road for the next leg of our adventure, we purchased some items to go.  Bread, pastries (both sweet and savory), a bag of ground coffee for me.  And Franzisca even threw in one of her huge, decadent double chocolate brownies as a thank you to us!  We considered blowing off the rest of our trip and staying in Orosi the remainder of the week.  Just kidding, although we'd go back in a heartbeat.  We had more grand adventure ahead of us!  We packed up, checked out and hit the road.

Next stop:  Volcán Poás.