![](https://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/no-slug/60bb90b61585829ebcb949470addd021.jpg)
Advertisement
George Nickels: I was in a coffee shop when I overheard a man talking about going back to his family in the jungle. Two hours later, we became friends, and he invited me to come and meet his family. They are very poor and virtually anything that moves is food—especially tarantulas, which are everywhere.How many kids did you see running around in the woods?
I remember seeing five kids who hunted for at least seven hours a day. They had absolutely no protection, not even shoes. To them, hunting tarantulas is just like picking fruit—as soon as you can walk, you can also provide food for your family.How do they cook the spiders?
Once the spider’s caught, they put the—still living—thing into an old plastic water bottle to carry it back to their huts. Then they have a simple process of drowning and washing the spiders by putting them in a bowl of water and stirring them around with a stick. Spiders are then put in salt and fried in oil over a fire.
Advertisement
I did. They kept giving me the pregnant females full of eggs, and eating them isn’t that pleasant. When you bite into them the abdomen pops in your mouth. That’s a strange experience.More from The Hox Box Issue:I Left My Lungs in AamjiwnaangThe Ghost Rapes of BoliviaBabysit My Ass