Incidents are reported frequently of national and foreign tourists that choose to ignore the warning signs at the different national parks in Costa Rica and end up risking their lives and endangering the lives of members of the rescue teams.

This time its the Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG) that urge visitors to respect the rules established in each park, this because on April 10 a visitor ignored the “No trespassing” sign in a sector of the Rincon de la Vieja National Park, jumped the protection barrier and got into the fumarole lake where he got stuck, luckily, he was seen by a group of tourists and guides that helped him out and informed the park rangers.

“The young man suffered first and second degree burns in 18% of his body, he had burns on both his legs from the knees down, we washed off the mud on his legs and placed a bandage. This lake has a pH of 1-2, the combination of acidity and high temperature is like getting into a pool of boiling battery acid”, commented Cristhian Zuñiga from the ACG.

The Rincon de la Vieja National Park has an extension of 14,300 hectares and there are two sectors for tourist visitation: Las Pailas and Santa Maria, both sectors have a variety of ecosystems with the main attraction being the fumaroles, mud pools, waterefalls, fumarole lake, among others.

This volcano presents occasional phreatic eruptions.

In the past tourists have wondered off the authorized trails trying to get closer to the craters of the Arenal Volcano and Poas Volcano ending up lost or suffering unfortunate accidents.