Barva de Heredia

Barva de Heredia Review

About 3 km (2 mi) due north of Heredia, this colonial town is famous for making masks and for its Parque Central, still surrounded by the original adobe buildings with Spanish-tile roofs on three sides, and a white-stucco church to the east. The park is filled with whimsical sculptures, including a park bench shaped like an entire seated family, and bizarre masks and clown's heads decorating garbage receptacles. A new amphitheater and stage stand ready for the annual mask-making festival held every August. The stout, handsome church with terra-cotta bas-relief flourishes dates from the late 18th century and has a lovely grotto shrine to the Virgin Mary in the church garden.

On a clear day you can see verdant Volcán Barva towering to the north, and if you follow the road that runs in front of the church and veer left at the Y, you will wind your way up the slopes of that volcano to Vara Blanca, where you can either drive north to La Paz Waterfall Gardens or continue straight to Volcán Poás National Park. If instead you veer right at the Y and drive up the steep, narrow road, you'll pass through San José de la Montaña and Paso Llano to reach Sacramento, where the road turns into a rough dirt track leading to the Barva sector of Braulio Carrillo National Park. If you turn left when you reach Barva's central plaza, you'll head to San Pedro and Santa Barbara, where roads head south to Alajuela and also north to Vara Blanca.