04/07/2025
Costa Rica Travels with my good friend, Jody Rubel.
By Shona Lyons of Crusader Travel.
I met my friend Jody Rubel at Hebrew University in my gap year between completing my A levels and going to Edinburgh University. My group of friends and me, had a pretty wild time at Hebrew U, I have to admit. Not many of us really needed to study, and had, already experienced many years of discipline, & hard schoolwork, so it was the first experience really, that many of us had, had of some freedom and little responsibility and we established some good friendships.
Jody and me, liked to travel a lot, and so when we went back to our countries of origin, America being his and the UK being mine, we would plan to meet up in the long holidays, and do something very adventurous. We both loved the outdoors, walking, running and swimming etc and just craved to be in nature. My parents being in the travel business, could give me 70% reduction in long haul flights as they were agents for BA at that time, and the airline business and relationship it had with travel agents and tour operators, was quite different to what it is now. I think our office actually issued flight tickets at that time, hence the good relationship and agent discounts we had.
My mum actually suggested I go to Costa Rica, as she knew me well and knew how much I loved being in wild natural places and she was very right. It was the most incredible experience of my life. I don’t know what it is like now, but then, I guess more than 38 years ago, more or less, it was incredibly unspoiled. With the most beautiful dense Cloud and Rain Forests, white beaches, littered with huge tree trunks, that stretched for miles, with a backdrop of dense forests that could only be reached by trekking at least a day, through many kilometres of scrub and alligator infested swamps.
All I took with me in the way of planning was the Central American Handbook, which became our bible. We stayed a few nights in San Jose, ate the best Ceviche, at the market and I remember waking, the first morning, to see cockroaches on a Pomelo I had brought for our breakfast. We didn’t spend any money really, as we didn’t have any, eating rice and beans in cafes, drinking strong Costa Rican Coffees and planning our adventure.
We were totally ill equipped I guess in many ways, I think when we got there and started getting a few provisions to take with us into the jungle, we brought some wellington boots! some PVC, we thought, would be a good idea to hang over a rope above our hammocks, when the torrential rain struck, we stocked up with porridge, nuts, raisons, dried milk and a camping gas stove and that was it.
There were 3 of us at the start, and I think one of the first places we went to was the biological station in San Antonio. There really was nothing there, at the time, except for this biological station in the middle of the jungle. I can’t remember exactly how we got there, it was so long ago, but I know we took local buses and walked a lot. I remember, us walking into the jungle and hanging up our hammocks on some trees and putting the rope across as we had planned, with the transparent PVC over it, like a kind of hanging tent, and Joe, who tried it first, as the rains started plummeting down, started screaming to us that he was being asphyxiated, and all we could see, was his breath clouding up the PVC. We did think it was funny, and I remember Joe, then, as it was already quite late and dark, finding a loo, in the near by biological station and then running back, screaming again, that he had seen a tarantula. I think Jody and me, we were very young, and probably too innocent and naïve and didn’t really appreciate the possible danger we might have been in, but we found it all very funny, and I think Joe then decided this adventure really wasn’t for him and I remember he somehow going off and getting a plane back to America.
But Jody and me, continued, I think that first night, we 3 found the canteen of the station and slept on the dining tables as the torrential rain kept coming down. In the morning, the canteen staff were angry with the muddy mess we had made, and I don’t remember them even, accepting our offer to clean it up, but do I remember they generously gave us breakfast and then we headed off into the unknown. I think after about 20 minutes into our many kilometres hike to the sea, we threw the wellington boots away and carried on, with our trainers, walking through swamps, passing alligators and then finally, finding the sea. We slept in a little hut, huts, that we found all over Costa Rica, in the mountains and the forests and jungles, they were all there, I think for people like us, to get a little shelter. I remember, the first night in this hut, which was totally open, except for a floor and a roof, looking down and seeing the scorpions scuttling around, and in the morning, Jody, emptying one out of his shoe.
I remember, lots & lots of walking, lots of breakfasts of porridge to keep us going, beautiful forests, jungles, jungle floors totally littered with tiny red frogs, going to Monteverde and staying in a bit of luxury, a beautiful quaker wooden guest house for a night or two, and then heading into the jungle nearby, seeing lots of beautiful little hummingbirds, and toucans and walking on the paths there, that had been already made for people like us, and finding other little huts to sleep in. It was an amazing trip that I remember to this day. Far from the madding crowd, beautiful, exhilarating and exciting.
I don’t remember that we even took a camera, at least I can’t find any pictures of that time, apart from the ones I still have in my memories. I did look at the internet, but I can’t find pictures even of how it used to look, so unspoiled, and incredibly beautiful. It was just another time. To be honest, regarding our sea experience and trekking for miles and miles, whether it was San Antonio or Manuel Antonio, it was so long ago. I don’t really think it matters at all, it was just an incredibly magical experience that I think everyone should try and have at least once in their lives. It will give you beautiful memories that will last you a lifetime.
