Guanacaste Mountains, Costa Rica January 1997. The color infrared image helps to identify three major volcanoes that are part of the Guanacaste Mountains (volcanic range of mountains) in northwest Costa Rica. With many of the volcanic summits being covered by clouds, the deep red colors of the heavily forested slopes of the volcanoes line up in a northwest to southeast alignment. From left to right across the picture the names of the volcanoes are Orosi, Rincon de la Vieja (center of image), and Miravalles. The western flanks of these volcanoes exhibit a severely eroded landscape that grades into the Tempisque River Basin, located southwest of the mountains. This basin is an extensive fertile plain, but during the wet season the Tempisque River can inundate its floodplain and adjacent low-lying terrain. As the river approaches the Gulf of Nicoya, saline lagoons and swamplands increase, forming extensive wetlands. On higher elevations within the Tempisque Basin large field patterns, consisting of ranches and plantations are visible near the bottom of the picture. The darker feature at the top of the picture is the southern end of Lake Nicaragua and the dark feature in the lower left corner of the image is the Gulf of Papagayo.