Mexico straddles the southern part of North America, with coastal plains along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts rising to a central plateau. Northern Mexico is desertlike, while the south is a mountainous jungle containing Maya and Aztec ruins.
Located in Central America, Costa Rica has coastlines on the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The tropical coastal plains rise to mountains, active volcanoes, and a temperate central plateau where most people live (San José, the capital, is here).
Peru lies on the Pacific coast of South America just south of the Equator. To the Quechua Indians Peru means "land of abundance." Sites such as Machu Picchu and Cusco recall the wealth of the Inca civilization, destroyed in the early 16th century by Spaniards, who built an empire on Peru's gold and silver.
