It has swampy soils and thick hardwood forests. On an average it rains for 300 days in every year and this is the reason that most people live on the Pacific coast or in the highlands. Geologists call this region the backarc basin. The Pacific coastal plain has a rainy season from May to November.
Farmers raise a variety of grain as well as cattle in the north.
Further south are the large banana plantations that produce millions of bananas each year, many of which are exported to the United States. The Pacific coastal plain is much smaller than the Caribbean coastal plain, but it has twice the population. In reality there hardly is any plain here. The western part of the peninsular belt is marked by low ridges that geologists call the froearc ridge. The ridges are 1200 to 1800 feet high.