Mountaineers and rescue technicians from the Red Cross in Costa Rica are stepping up their efforts to locate eight people who went missing this past Monday in the vicinity of the Braulio Carrillo National Park, specifically in the mountainous region near the Zurqui tunnel.

What little is known about these eight missing hikers in Costa Rica is shrouded in mystery. The facts thus far reported by the Red Cross and Joselyn Ugarte of online news daily CRHoy.com are:

• There are seven men and one woman in the group.
• They entered the Braulio Carrillo National Park at the Bajo de la Hondura access point in the San Jerónimo district
• Initial reports indicate that the hikers were expected to exit the park at Rio Sucio around 5:00 pm on Monday, which is right around twilight for this region during this time of the year. Later reports, however, indicated that the hikers were expected to emerge at 10:00 am on Tuesday, which would have implied spending the night at the park.
• The Red Cross has not reported the names or ages of the missing hikers; however, they have mentioned that they are all employees of the Judicial Investigations Police. It is not clear if any of them are field agents.
• It is not known if the hikers have any camping gear, cold weather clothing or even food.

Red Cross rescuers have mentioned that the area of the Braulio Carrillo National Park where the hikers were reported missing is not the most inviting for nature walks during the green season. The Red Cross has interviewed the brother of one of the missing hikers, who explained that he received a telephone call from the group yesterday. The only known details of the phone call include the poor voice quality due to the limited wireless signal coverage in the area. The caller mentioned that the group was fine but hopelessly lost, and that they were close to a lagoon. The call recipient reported the sound of vehicular traffic in the background, but it is not known how many cell phones the group may be carrying or whether they are GPS-enabled.

Although no lagoon appears on the maps consulted by mountaineers, heavy rains and a series of landslides in the last few days have blocked the flow of a river in the area, which could appear as a lagoon to the missing hikers. As of this morning, rescuers entered the park through the Ventanas sector and are cautiously advancing towards the flooded areas.

News reports and official press releases from the Red Cross on this incident have been widely shared on social media, yet no one has been able to determine the identity of the missing hikers. The only information provided by the Red Cross in this regard is that the eight missing persons are all employees of the Judicial Investigations Police (Spanish initials: OIJ), but it is not certain whether they are field agents who were on duty at the time of their disappearance.