Gibraltar and the Top of the Rock

Gibraltar is, more than anything, a strange eclectic place. Where else can you find a giant rock/cliff/mountain which is one of the ancient Pillars of Hercules, a strait between the continents of Africa and Europe of about 13 km or 8 miles which also connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea, an English colony that's been set right smack in the middle of a beautiful Spanish coastline since the 1700s, and to top it all off--the number one tourist attraction in the area is the army of apes who live on top of The Rock?

The people speak English--though an English / South African / Spanish dialect--and the city is nothing more than a big port, an airport with a runway that acts as the border between 'England' and Spain, a few nice touristic streets, and The Rock, the mountain in the middle of the city where there are funiculars that charge you an arm and a leg to go up and see the sights. Are the sights worth it? Yep.



We rode the funicular to the top and caught the views from the observatory decks. The bay area was very pretty. The nearby towns weren't very big, though I think they're visited by some tourists who like to surf to do water sports. Abby and I stayed in the Spanish town across the border, La Linea de la Concepcion, because we didn't want to pay British pounds.

Check out the mountains in the background. Those are the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Africa. We felt pretty special that we could see them quite clearly from where we were at.

Here's the apes. They were the big butt variety... just how I like em. They were all different shapes, sizes, ages, and flavors. Most of them were pretty active, and we were repeatedly warned not to give them food and to be careful with our things around them. They like to snatch at anything resembling a baggy or anything smelling of food.


Really, though, they weren't afraid of us at all. They were so accustomed to people and tourists around them constantly that we didn't faze them in the slightest. Unfortunately, this means that their way of life will never be natural, and they'll continue to become more influenced and threatened, no doubt, by interaction with humans. At least being primates, they have a damn good time at it all, or at least it seems that way.


Here the crazy buggers are catching a ride on a car. They really loved the windshield wipers, and it given the chance, they probably would have driven down the mountain.
There were quite a few little ones also. They rode on the backs of the big ones and were very cute and entertaining.