Making New (Monkey) Friends in Gibraltar

Yesterday we traveled on our own for the first time: a group of us went to Gibraltar, a city on the Mediterranean in Southern Spain (again, very close to Morocco).  We bought tickets in advance for a 10:15am bus.  When they said 10:15, they meant 10:15.  The bus pulled out at 10:15 on the dot yesterday morning.  Unfortunately, as we pulled away from the bus station, we passed some of our classmates sprinting to try to catch the bus.  Although one managed to reach the bus while we were sitting at a red light, the rest weren’t as lucky.  Despite the fact that our friends had already paid for their tickets and really wanted to go to Gibraltar with us, the sight was quite comical.  And luckily, there was an 11:30 bus that they managed to catch.

Anyway, after a 3-hour ride, we arrived in Gibraltar.  The neat thing about this place is that it is actually a British territory.  For this reason, we needed to bring our passports since we were, in effect, crossing the border.  (Removing my passport from the safe confines of my suitcase is one of my greatest fears, but I managed to return home last night with my passport in tow – so as of now, I will be returning to the United States within the year, Mom).  The other nice thing about Gibraltar is that since it is British, they speak both English and Spanish.  It was a nice break and a comfort to speak some English with the locals. 

The main attraction in Gibraltar is the Rock of Gibraltar: a 1,398-foot mountain containing caves, tunnels, and, best of all, monkeys. 

We had originally hoped to climb the rock; we had heard that the hike would last 1 ½ hours and was a great workout.  However, upon arriving there, we realized that it did not seem that most people go about exploring the rock in that way, so we decided to pursue alternative means.  Our group found some men who were giving car tours of the Rock, so we piled into two different vans and were on our way.

I’ll mention here that I made a friend yesterday.  He was furry, liked to jump, and ate more peanuts than I ever could.  He was even kind enough to pose for a picture with me:

  

 Yes, that’s a monkey on my head.  It was pretty simple to entice him to sit there: the tour guide held a peanut in front of my face and the monkey climbed onto my head so he could grab the peanut.  He was a pretty sloppy eater as he sat there and downed the peanut.  As the tour guide held peanuts in front of our friends’ faces, the monkey jumped from head to head.  He sat on each person for a minute or two, so we were able to get many great pictures!  Here’s a close-up:

I’m still in shock that there was a monkey sitting on my head yesterday.  It seems pretty unique to the city; I’m not sure that you would find this in America.  The tour guide ordered us not to touch the monkeys or they would bite us.  He also made sure to note that the monkeys are not potty-trained.  Good to know.  Luckily (depending on how you look at it), the monkeys did not use any of our heads as a toilet.

There are tons of monkeys on the Rock.  Everywhere we went, they were all over the place.  They even let us come pretty close to them; they must be very used to tourists.  Our next stop on the tour was to see some caves inside the Rock.  They were beautiful!  There was even an amphitheater inside – imagine the acoustics in there!

Next, we hit some tunnels that had been used in wars including World War II.  It was incredible how long the tunnels were and how difficult it must have been to construct them.  We found out that General Eisenhower had had an office inside the tunnels during the planning of “Operation Torch” during WWII.  It was a great historical site with unbelievable views:

Throughout the tour, we stopped at various points to take some photos.  Here are a few of my favorites:

View from the top of the Rock of the beach below 

View of part of the Rock and the African mountains in the distance 

I felt like I was in Britain! 

Couldn't pass up this photo opp 

African mountains in the distance 

View of Spain from the top 

We could see everything from the top! 

Breathtaking 

View of one of the runways of the Gibraltar airport 

Gibraltar was an absolute blast and we were so glad that we had made the trip.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who plans to travel to Europe/Spain in the future!