Description
This private journey travels to the roots of Costa Rican identity, to the places where coffee, faith and craftsmanship shaped the towns of the Central Valley. Unhurried and with your own guide, you'll follow mountain roads lined with coffee farms, sugarcane mills and lookouts over the valley.
The first stop is Doka Estate, on the slopes of Poas Volcano, a family farm that has grown coffee for generations. You'll walk among the coffee shrubs, visit the nursery and the historic water-powered wet mill, recognized as a national heritage site, and see how beans dry in the sun before reaching the roaster. The experience ends with a tasting that reveals why high-grown Costa Rican coffee is prized around the world.
We continue to Grecia, a tidy, peaceful town whose emblem is the Church of Our Lady of Mercy, a striking red church built from prefabricated metal plates shipped from Belgium in the late nineteenth century. Its Gothic spires and interior of wood and stained glass make it one of the most unusual churches in Central America.
The day ends in Sarchi, the cradle of Costa Rican handicrafts. This is the birthplace of the hand-painted oxcart, decorated with mandalas, flowers and stars in vivid colors, a tradition UNESCO recognizes as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. We visit a century-old workshop to watch artisans carve, assemble and paint wheels and furniture, then pause in the central park to photograph one of the largest oxcarts in the world. A traditional lunch along the way is included.
