The eight missing hikers who disappeared under mysterious circumstances on Monday have been located alive and stable. As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, seven men and one woman were seen entering the Braulio Carrillo National Park at Bajo de la Hondura, an entry point located in the mountainous Zurquí area of San Jerónimo.

Red Cross rescuers and paramedics will spend the night with the missing hikers, who will be extracted from the thickly wooded mountain by means of 4×4 ambulances tomorrow morning. Not much is known about these hikers except:

They 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 national park without any camping gear, cold weather clothing or even food.

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 still not clear if any of them are field agents.

During the early stages of the search, only Red Cross mountaineers and rescue technicians were involved. Later, officers from Fuerza Pública, the national police force of Costa Rica, joined the effort along with aircraft from the Air Surveillance unit of the Ministry of Public Security (Spanish initials: MSP) On Wednesday night, rescuers established a bivouac and waited for reinforcements from K-9 officers specially trained in search and rescue operations.

Once K-9 officers Lira and Mark arrived along with their human handlers, the search efforts sped up considerably until the eight hikers were finally located. Reports from the Red Cross public affairs section explained that the hikers were drenched, exhausted and cold but all the same extremely relieved to be found by animated K-9 officers and rescue personnel. The Costa Rica Star hereby salutes the honorable work of the Red Cross rescuers, many of whom are unpaid volunteers.