Draining Lake Cachi, the Rio Reventazon falls through a narrow valley, tumbling ever more steeply to the east as the land steps toward the Caribbean Lowlands. Hemmed between the sheer face of the Talamancas and the steep yet gradual slopes of Volcan Turrialba, the area is given short shrift by tourists though it offers appeals a plenty.

At its heart lies Turrialba, a somewhat nondescript town in a broad valley swaddled in sugarcane, citrus, and macadamia plantations. Turrialba was once a major way-stop on the old highway between San Jose and the Caribbean, and has been left high and dry since construction of the Guapiles Highway and since the demise of the Atlantic Railroad in 1991.