The hot relatively dry rolling hills that rise up from the unspoiled Pacific beaches climb steeply to lush green cloud forest heights on the shoulders of the string of volcanoes that make up the Cordillera Guanacaste.  The range drops equally precipitously to the east giving way first to agricultural and grass lands and then the swamps and marshes referred to as llanuras stretching along the Ríos Sarapiquí, San Juan and Colorado. (Detailed Introduction to the Region)