Orosi: The Valley in Costa Rica Where the Water Has Heated Itself Since 1743

There are places that don't ask you to understand them - only to feel them. The Orosi valley in Costa Rica, about forty kilometers from the capital San Jose, is one of them. Hidden between tropical forest and green mountains, it holds geothermal springs that have flowed since 1743, with water hotter than 70 degrees rising straight out of the ground. Here nature heats itself, without a single boiler.

At the heart of the place are seven pools with temperatures between 34 and 39 degrees, rich in over ten minerals said to be good for the skin. You bathe in warm mineral water while looking out at a volcano and a valley full of greenery. There are also mineral-mud treatments for the skin, and around you live horses, sheep, peacocks - a farm that pulls you back into a rhythm slower than the one we're used to.

But Orosi isn't just a pool of warm water. There's also the coffee tour - a five-kilometer walk through the mountain dedicated to coffee, the culture that keeps Costa Rica on the world map, with giant sculptures lining the path. In the restaurant you eat traditional Costa Rican food while over 225 bird species fly overhead, hummingbirds among them. And just fifty or so kilometers away is the Irazu volcano, the country's highest active volcano, over 3,400 meters.

Admission costs about 57 euros for a full day and includes towels, a wardrobe and a mud treatment. It's not cheap for our pockets, nor is it nearby - but not every place has to be reachable for it to be worth knowing it exists. Costa Rica has long sold nature as its greatest resource, and Orosi is proof of why that works. Sometimes the best luxury is the one the country only needs to leave where it is.