National Route 126 (Costa Rica)

Starting at the downtown area of Heredia canton, at Route 3, this road goes through Heredia, Barva, Carrizal, and Varablanca slightly following the province limit between Heredia and Alajuela, until arriving to Route 4 at Bajos de Chilamate in Sarapiquí.

It allows access to the Poás Volcano National Park when driving from Heredia, by turning at Route 120.

In the southern area of the route, near Barva canton, there are many coffee plantations, and further north in Varablanca there are strawberry orchards.

Making use of the eastern lowlands segment of Route 32 and Route 4, this route connects the Greater Metropolitan Area to the Caribbean districts, which is a recommended alternate route in case of emergency when there are landslides in the Braulio Carrillo national park section of Route 32.[2]

In Alajuela province the route covers Alajuela canton (Carrizal, San Isidro, Sarapiquí districts).

In Heredia province the route covers Heredia canton (Heredia, Mercedes, Varablanca districts), Barva canton (Barva, San Pedro, San Pablo districts), Santa Bárbara canton (Jesús, Santo Domingo, Purabá districts), Sarapiquí canton (La Virgen district).

Administrative regions covered by this route and their junctions at the district level.

Province	Canton	District	km	mi	Destinations	Notes
Alajuela	Alajuela	Carrizal			Route 125
		San Isidro
		Sarapiquí			Route 140
Heredia	Heredia	Heredia			Route 3
		Mercedes
		Varablanca			Route 120
	Barva	Barva			Route 119 Route 128
		San Pedro
		San Pablo			Route 114
	Santa Bárbara	Jesús			Route 114
		Santo Domingo
		Purabá			Route 127
	Sarapiquí	La Virgen			Route 4

Old wood bridge near La Paz waterfall, circa 1990

An historic route in the country, an approximate route was used to export goods to Europe by the Spanish colonials.[3]

Was partially destroyed by the 2009 Cinchona earthquake, reconstruction took five years and was concluded on 2014.[4]

Among the major construction works in the route, the bridge over Quebrada Seca (Seca creek) was rebuilt from one to four lanes and new sidewalks, finishing in January 2014.[5]