The northern provinces are Costa Rica’s flatlands – a gentle landscape quilted in pastures, fruit plantations, and humid rainforest dominated by Volcán Arenal, the youngest of Costa Rica’s volcanoes. The Corobicí peoples are thought to have settled the lower flanks of the mountains around 1000 AD. By the time the Spanish arrived 500 years later, they were at war with their Nicaraguan neighbors. During the colonial era, Spanish settlements proliferated along the main river courses, and were subject to constant plundering by pirates. The region remained aloof from the rest of the country until the early 19th century, when a trade route was laid linking highland towns to a wharfside settlement – today’s Puerto Viejo – which gave access to the Caribbean. Founded around that time, Ciudad Quesada grew to become the region’s administrative center. The settlement campaign initiated in the 1950s led to the decimation of huge tracts of forest to make room for cattle farms as well as banana and citrus plantations, although efforts to re-forest the region are underway.