Noche de las Arañas (Night of the Spiders)

It started off as such a nice night. I decided to make pasta with bread and cucumber salad - ambitious for our little kitchen here in our Guatemalan studio, but doable.

As we were sitting on the couch looking out over Lake Atitlan and enjoying the meal, I looked beyond my husband at the wall behind him and noticed what seemed to be a very large spider just next to the closet.

For some reason, when I see a spider, scorpion, etc., I lose my capacity for speech and retreat down into my brain stem where language sounds like a series of grunts and I point at the object of my fear.

This was one of the three spiders my husband hunted down for me. He is a pacifist at heart, and tried to save them, but none were willing to take him up on the suggestion that they just leave.

 We realized our increase in spiders was directly tied to a change in behavior. The first few nights, we left the wall of glass doors open most of the day and evening for the wonderful breeze coming off the lake. Today was overcast and stayed very cool, so we didn't need to leave them open. With the closed glass doors and lights inside, the flying bugs were going nuts, all huddled up against the glass trying to get to the light.

Where there is a large population of bugs, you will attract their predators - spiders.

My solution for the night - most of the bottle of red Argentinan wine, and moving our bed to the center of the room and spraying the base with bug spray.

Bottom line, a night spider hunting in Guatemala is still better than most Thursdays in Sacramento. ;-)

Update: After this post was written and as we were settling into bed, we spotted a scorpion on the ground near the head of our bed, the second we have found in that spot.

Yes, I did sleep last night but it wasn't easy. In the light of day, I feel like i can be more philosophical about the experience. One of the things I love about this place is the vitality here - that comes from a climate that promotes an abundance of life. You don't get to choose which species are selected in the foodchain, so if you want to be in a place that has monkeys, beautiful birds, sloths, incredibly huge butterflies, you also have to accept their counterparts.

I am very allergic to many insects, and it does challenge my courage at times to see them in my space. But, I have my Benydryl and my Epi-Pen, and my perspective - I came here to fully experience life.

As the Pasaj-Cap owner's girlfriend Aska said to me, "better to die in a place like this than in front of a tv." :-)