Lake Cachí and the Dam Road
A reservoir on the Reventazón, and the quietest half of the valley circuit.
The Water
The lake is not natural. It is the reservoir behind the Cachí dam, holding back the Reventazón, and it has been there long enough that the valley has arranged itself comfortably around it.
It is a strong green colour under cloud and a different green entirely in sun, and the road runs close enough to the edge for most of its length that you get the thing continuously rather than in glimpses.
The Far Side
The eastern side of the circuit sees a fraction of the traffic that the Orosi side does. There are fewer places to stop, fewer people, and long stretches where the only thing happening is the water on one side and forest on the other.
If the point of the day was quiet, this is the half that delivers it.
Stopping
There are pull-ins along the dam road and a couple of places to eat with terraces over the water, which are worth the stop for the view whatever the food is doing.
The dam itself is infrastructure rather than an attraction, but the scale of it up close is more impressive than it has any right to be.
