The Orosi valley is a loop of road southeast of Cartago around the Reventazón river, and it is the prettiest short drive in the Central Valley: coffee on the terraces, the Cachí reservoir in the bottom, and mountains closing the end of it.
Orosi village has the Iglesia de San José, built by Franciscans in 1743 and the oldest church still in use in Costa Rica — a low adobe building with a tiled roof that survived the earthquakes that flattened Cartago, and a small religious-art museum beside it. There are hot springs in the village fed from the Irazú system.
Round the loop are the ruins of the church at Ujarrás, abandoned after floods in 1833, and Lankester Botanical Garden nearer Cartago, which holds one of the better orchid collections in the Americas — worth timing for February to April when most are in flower.