[1] The Chortis Highlands is a large dissected plateau which extends across most of Honduras and El Salvador, along with a portion of western Guatemala and north-central Nicaragua.
Geologically the Highlands is part of the Chortis Block, a continental fragment that extends eastwards under the Atlantic coastal plain and continental shelf of Honduras and Nicaragua, and westwards under the Pacific coastal lowlands and Central American Volcanic Arc of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
These ranges include:[1] The northern, central, and eastern, and southern highlands are drained by rivers that empty into the Caribbean.
These include the Motagua in Guatemala, the Ulúa, Aguán, and Patuca rivers in Honduras, the Coco which forms the Honduras-Nicaragua border, and the Wawa, Kukalaya, Prinzapolka, Río Grande de Matagalpa, and San Juan in Nicaragua.
The western portion of the highlands is drained by rivers that empty into the Pacific, including the Lempa in El Salvador, the Choluteca in Honduras, and the Negro in Nicaragua.