With only 1% of Costa Rica Park Rangers having any English language ability, about 350 park rangers are receiving English classes and doing exchanges with other park Rangers in Spain and the USA.

27% of Costa Rica is Protected.

After discussing it for some time, Costa Rica is investing significantly more time, money and energy in their Park Rangers to give them the tools to protect the environment and take care of the million plus people that visit the National Parks each year

Carlos Berrocal, a park ranger at Poás volcano stated: “It’s been six years that we’ve been talking about these improvements, but nothing happened. We need to get this done. Half of our visitors are foreigners and it’s impossible to so evacuations properly because we can’t communicate with them.”

The Numbers.

The normal routine for a Park Ranger is ten days working (including Saturday and Sunday) and then four days off. For this work the monthly salaries are around $400 per month.

Tourist Numbers.

According to MINAE, the number of recent registered visitors for each National Park are:

1. Volcán Poás. 270,060
2. Manuel Antonio. 215,538
3. Volcán Irazú. 133,411
4. Volcán Arenal. 71,330
5. Cahuita. 70,422
6. Tortuguero. 56,105
7. Rincón de la Vieja. 40,071
8. Carara. 30,575
9. Santa Rosa. 22,475
10. Corcovado. 22,336
11. Tapantí. 19,978
12. Guayabo. 19,666
13. Braulio Carrillo. 12,405
14. Volcán Turrialba. 11,902
15. Volcán Tenorio. 7,556
16. Las Baulas. 5,636
17. Marino Ballena. 4,510
18. Palo Verde. 3.415
19. Isla del Coco. 3.241
20. Barra Honda. 3,037
21. Chirripó. 4,429
22. Barbilla. 2,050
23. Diriá. 1,240
24. La Cangreja. 535
25. Barra Colorado. 241
26. Piedras Blancas. 183
27. Guanacaste. 58
28. Internacional La Amistad. 53

With 15+ million tourists in the last 15 years:

• 52.5% of those visitors were Costa Rica nationals and
• 47.5% of those visitors were foreign tourists.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.