If you've been on the Rio Dulce more than a week, you've probably noticed Mother Nature has blessed this area with a plethora of spiders - and they sure can weave some dramatic webs in your rigging! Indeed, some folks feel it's great cocktail hour entertainment watching them gracefully drop and sway, effortlessly creating their fragile traps. Newcomers, tiring of this amusement, are often heard querying the old-timers for the best method of control and / or destruction.

One day as I was shopping in Tienda Reed, I happened to overhear an Englishman whining that he had had enough spider watching. It was time for action! He had tried fly swatters, insect sprays, a high pressure water hose - the poor guy was at his wits end striving to keep his normally immaculate yacht permanently free of the annoying little critters.

So Don Chiqui, bless him, took pity on the distressed sailor. With his most solemn, professional, storekeepers demeanor, Don Chiqui informed the Brit he had for sale the ultimate solution.

Willing by now to pay any price for freedom from his plight, the sailor said, "Yes, I'll buy it if you'll guarantee it will get rid of the spiders".

Bending below the counter, Don Chiqui rummaged for a moment, then stood up straight-faced, with that wonderful twinkle in his eye, and laid on his counter........a hammer.