Gibraltar: "Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport"

Warning:  many pictures of monkeys may lie ahead!

First impromtu day thus far and a great one at that.  We had planned to go to Malaga from Grenada and at the last minute decided to drive through Malaga and continue to Gibraltar.  

Good thing we had our passports since Gib is technically considered UK territory, which means we got another stamp.  We walked through the border crossing and then across the airfield… actually, we were stopped at first in order to let a plane go by.  

Suddenly, it was like we were transported to England from Spain in a matters of minutes.  The street signs, the police, the food and even the red phone booths were all typical of Britain.  We of course couldn’t resist stopping for some fish n chips for lunch.  We were limited on  time since we used all the change we had to feed the meter when parking the car so we had to hightail it to the cable car in order to get to the top of the rock.  Let’s just say it wasn't a leisurely stroll through the park, we were on a mission.  To my surprise, there was no line at the cable car ticket booth and only 4 other people with us on it; I was completely expecting tons and tons of people since the entire city was heavily populated. The view heading up the rock was fantastic! 

We step off the cable car and BAM! we see our first mono (Barbary macaques). We come to learn that this little guy is notorious for snagging food and personal items from unsuspecting tourists, despite her innocent face.  

Did I mention that the view was amazing! Pepe couldn't wait to get to the "Top of the Rock"

It was a wee bit hazy, but we could see the tip of Africa from the top. If you look closely, you can see an outline of the coast, similar to Catalina for all you California folks.  

Apparently the monos aren’t shy, posted signs advised us to watch our personal belongings, hide any food and to not have any visible plastic bags. Looks like this monkey got a surprise!!

I loved every minute with the monkeys.  They really could have cared less that we were around, I think I was actually more afraid of them than they were of me.  

Though, I have to admit, I was hesitant to bring Pepe out, since I thought they might think we was food and snatch him up.  Needless to say, Pepe spent most of the day just along for the ride since we didn't want to lose him to the pickpocketing monkeys.  

Fortunately, Pepe is still with us, despite the monkeys being known to take hats, ice cream, bags and such.  We saw many baby monkeys, just two weeks old, hanging around with their mums.  They were not the most coordinated little guys, I’d catch them staggering or face planting on the ground as they moved around, maybe some early intervention might do them some good (hehe!). 

But they sure were smart, hitching rides in order to manever around. 

We came across some sort of monkey playground, with a bunch of monkeys just hanging out, some were eating, some fighting, some lounging in shade. Caught one as he sat up in the rocks looking out at Africa, waving to our camel friends in Morocco. 

Here’s the boss of the colony, El Jefe

I could have totally gotten closer, but chose to respect their space.

Cause sometimes you just don't want to be bothered by anyone…

But as you can tell, Ray didn't get that close either (despite him pushing me to get close).

 

Peek-a-boo!

Looks like their diet consisted of celery, carrots, onions, and corn.

But don’t be caught trying to feed them, since the fine is 4,000 GBP or something crazy like that.  

Of course, we had to take a selfie with the monos

Just before we headed back down the rock, I found a monkey friend checking out the view and decided to join him.   

Though I was trying to get a creative shot with us both looking out at the city, he was not to be fooled.  He looked right at the camera, wondering why I wasn't looking at it too.

We briefly chatted with a couple from Minnesota who happened to be on their honeymoon when a monkey decides to walk right through of conversation. 

On the way back from Gibraltar we had a decision to make… To Spain or to the Airport…

Pepe chose to go back to Spain and head to Estepona, along the Mediterranean coast.  

A week and a half ago, we we standing on the Atlantic coast and now we were dipping our toes in the Med. 

Pepe found some friends at the pool bar.

We grabbed a drink with some friends we met from the wedding that happened to be there too and enjoyed the beautiful view from their terrace.  

After a long and fun filled day, back we went to our new hotel for some shut-eye