Travelling to Colombia

Once there was an amazing spider and that very spider went on a journey to Colombia. But she had never heard of that country before. So she was very scared. She meandered around aimless but confident.

But then she met an earthworm and asked him:

“Dear earthworm! You know the grounds better than everybody else. I am going to Colombia. Have you ever heard of it?”

“I have indeed”, said the earthworm. “They must have very good soils there”.

So the spider was hopeful again. But then suddenly she was filled with doubt and asked:

“How do you know?”

The earthworm replied: “My uncle has a friend who does the grounds there and those are very good grounds. They are very humid and rich so it can only be a good country.”

The spider thanked the earthworm and went on. Then she came to the forest where she met a giant wild boar. The wild boar was very majestic and had a long grey back. At first the spider was a bit frightened to talk to the wild boar but then she commanded all her courage and said:

“You must be one who knows things. I am on a journey to Colombia. Have you ever heard of it?”

The wild boar was a bit surprised and said: “Why do you want to go to Colombia?”

“Because I hope that in Colombia there live the friendliest spiders with beautiful cobwebs who lie in the sun day by day and enjoy the richness of the country.”

The wild boar sighed: “I can tell you something. Plenty of us boars travelled the world. They came to many places even to Colombia but I heard strange rumours going on that they were hunted there and a great deal of them died. I can only speak for us wild boars but you should be aware of it. The distance not always brings peace to us.”

The spider trembled with dismay. She had not thought of that opportunity. She had just dreamed of that marvellous place where everything was fine and thrilling. She immediately thanked the wild boar and went on again with doubt in her heart.

Then she came to a clearing with the dews of the culms reflecting the sun. The spider sat down for a moment without thinking of Colombia. She just enjoyed the sun and the visible variety of life. Now then she decided to spin a great web in the blades. A word and a blow and so she was busily engaged until dusk was approaching. Then she happily stayed in the middle of her web and awaited her casualties. But she had worked the whole day and had missed the wonderful landscape now that it was dark. So she abided there a little bit lost with dark thoughts and waited for things to come. I am sure that it took almost three hours for something to happen. There was a quiet sweeping and toddling and soon there occurred eight little feet and then another eight little feet and another…

They all crowded around the beautiful spider’s web. It was a great convention and everyone eyeballed the lone spider. Then one of them broke the silence and said:

“What are you doing here? I have never seen you before!”

The spider answered: “I am on a journey to Colombia and I just came here because today it was a beautiful clearing but I worked the whole day and now that I’m done I can’t enjoy it.”

One of the big spiders in the round muttered: “Just you stay for some days, will you? Then you will see how beautiful it is here in the daytime. You now have a web and can relax.”

The spider agreed and they talked the whole night about life in this area. By the break of dawn they said goodbye and the spider was alone again. Now she concentrated on the rise of the sun and was amazed by the pure beauty of her rays falling on the wet ground. It came to her mind: 'This really is a place to live!'