Living With Spiders

We live with spiders here on Kinmen. 

Or anywhere else that we live in the tropics for that matter. 

They are huge — sometimes the size of a human hand. 

But they don’t mess with me so I leave them alone. They crawl all over our walls but seem to know where the line is drawn and they don’t cross it. 

Getting used to giant spiders is one of the required skills of travel. They are everywhere. To try to get rid of them all the time is to add another chore onto the day. It’s really not necessary. 

I can remember trying to tell tourists this at the lodge I once worked at in the jungles of Guatemala many years ago. I would hear them scream and then the pitter patter if their little feet as they come running towards me. 

“Just leave them alone,” I would tell them. “They won’t hurt you.”

They would never believe me so I would have to show them. 

I’d stomp into their room and grab the giant spider with my bare hand, carry it outside, and chuck it. 

It was a tough guy act performed just to see the looks on their faces. 

Then one time I was clearing out a giant spider for some Spanish girls. It bit down hard on one of my fingers.

So much for that tough guy thing.