Santa Barbara – San Bosco – Birri
The Santa Barbara canton does not stop surprising me. I was heading to explore the Barva Canton. But because of some contingencies., I arrived in Santa Barbara late. Then I decided to leave Barva, in the Heredia province, for another day.
I was between going back home or taking the only road left I haven’t explored yet which starts in Santa Barbara. This road is called “Calle Potrerillos” and my idea was to use it to get to San Bosco, a small town I had not visited yet.
Let’s walk!
First, I have to take the “Calle Central” from downtown heading north. This street is quite used because it leads to the “Carlos Alvarado” Stadium and the “Liceo de Santa Barbara” high school. I reached the bridge over the Potrerillos river. If you keep heading north you’ll be in Calle Potrerillos.
Photos of Calle Central and the Carlos Alvarado Stadium in Santa Barbara
There I found a colony of Montezuma Oropendolas, a bird with vibrant black and yellow feathers and a red beak. They do singular sounds, check the video!
Potrerillos is a lonely road, with some houses here or there but most of the path will be empty lots with some trees on the side. Once I reached a bifurcation I took the left way, just because there was a nice property with bamboo bushes on one of the sides.
I kept walking until I reach my first point of interest, San Bosco. It is a small community with an incredible view of the Barva volcano. Families were practicing sports on the soccer field then the church has a colony of parakeets living on the steeple.
I continued until I reached the town downtown where route 126 takes place. This is an important route that communicates the city of Heredia with Barva, Birri, and Carrizal.
I planned to visit El Roble, which was just 1km north of the San Bosco crossroad but it was already 4:30 P.M. and in Costa Rica, sunset is around 6 o’clock, so I decided to go to Birri at once. Before I did a trip on this route before by bike and I recalled part of it has no street lights.
Santa Barbara Route 126
The road between San Bosco and Birri is a view of the old times in Costa Rica. In the days coffee farms were everywhere. There is a dangerous bridge with no fences on one of the sides. Get used to it, you’ll see a lot of these in Costa Rica. I found a small community along the way called La Guaracha with a lovely church.
No sidewalks except in the area of La Guaracha until Birri so I had to be careful.
Finishing the trip
After taking some photos in Birri I took route 114. This road is not in the best shape, to be honest. Worst of all, it has the most obnoxious slope I ever walked on, a 45-degree slope. It looks so dumb, you can only think “who approved this?” Even, going downhill is a pain. I needed to ground myself harder because there is no sidewalk and falling is not an option there.
If you want to avoid this road, is the one between Barrio Jesus and Birri.
15 minutes more of walking to take the bus home. If you want more info about Santa Barbara, visit this link.
No regrets, it was a good Sunday afternoon!
