Gibraltar--4/11/09

After a day of recovery in Spain, Kai and I spontaneously went to Gibraltar for a day. This was the strangest day trip of my life. Gibraltar is a four-square-mile British-owned territory on the southern tip of Spain. It was strange because we got on the bus in Sevilla, and seemed to get off in Great Britain itself. Everything was perfectly British (we had to change money), and it was a nice reminder of my trip to London and a preview of Kai’s impending one. We had no idea what language to speak all day, because the native language is English, but most employees are Spanish. The main attraction is, of course, the rock. We took a cable car up and spent the afternoon roaming around. The rock contains a Moorish castle, caves, and monkeys. The monkeys are the main tourist attraction, and also the most nationally important: when there are no more apes, the rock will no longer be British territory. There are just so adorable. They were all in family units, which generally had a mom, a dad, a baby monkey, and a kid monkey. They are free roaming, and there are cutely illustrated signs warning visitors not to feed the monkeys, show the possession of plastic bags, which the monkeys associate with food, or mock the monkeys (I violated all three—I gave one my orange, I rustled my sunscreen bag, and I pretended to pick nits out of Kai’s hair, since that’s all they do). Right off the cable car we saw the first family. I crouched down to extend my hand to the baby, and he jumped straight on my head. I guess the nit-picking is a really big deal, because the monkey was combing his little hands through my hair and gnawing on chunks. He found two big nits (bobby pins) and tried to get them out. This felt soooo good. It was the pleasure of a scalp massage and wearing a really fuzzy hat all in one. I was a little nervous about my ears, but I still enjoyed it. Putting a monkey on your head is apparently a great way to get attention, since a big crowd formed and the cameras were going nonstop. Kai took a video, which I will soon post. There was one moment of fear that he was going for my backpack zipper, inside of which he would have found a sandwich, three oranges, some ham-flavored potato chips (oh, Spain), and cookies. Luckily my hair was more fun. After I tried to shift so he would jump onto Kai, he went back to his mommy. His mom said something to him after! She put her face real close and definitely talked, it was not a sound I ever associated with Monkeys, but I wonder what she said. As a result of this interaction, I had a sick hairdo. He had pulled my bobby pins halfway out, so I had these “wings,” as Kai called them sticking up. I decided to keep it like that all day.
The second monkey encounter was several hours later, after hiking all around the rock. Kai and I arrived at the café at the summit, hot and tired. We sought refuge in the form of pre-packaged ice cream bars. We purchased them and stepped outside. A big, scary, full-grown monkey came out of nowhere. He saw my ice cream, and knew it was food. I held it high, out of his reach, forgetting that he was a monkey, and therefore that wouldn’t stop him. Next thing I know, he was on my back. I was terrified, and therefore could not enjoy giving a piggyback to a monkey, something I’ve always wanted to do. My instinct was to throw the ice cream to Kai. It worked, and the monkey jumped off and went for Kai. He threw it back, and we bolted to safety inside. It wasn’t until the bus ride home that I really became aware of the fact that I had played “Monkey in the Middle” with a real monkey.
In addition to England and monkeys, the rock was enjoyable as a natural wonder. We explored all the paths looking for the official Ape Den, and saw all sorts of flowers and trees. From every side we could see the sparkling, blue ocean. We saw the Spanish mountains, the strait of Gibraltar, and Africa. Our cable car driver pointed it out: it was a greenish peak through the mist on the horizon. I was disappointed that time and monkey didn’t permit my stepping on African soil (Morocco is an easy weekend trip from Spain), but I was glad to have even seen it. We decided to take the late bus back to have more time. Kai subtly rolled his apple to the big kid of a monkey family. It was so cute watching this little monkey sitting, eating the apple. He was a little ways away from his family, and they did not notice the treat he had found. The monkey stood up, apple in hand. I was expecting him to bring it to his family to share, but instead he took off up the cliff to find a spot to consume the apple in privacy. Unfortunately, about halfway up he dropped it. A mean, full-grown monkey scooped up the apple before the kid could climb back down. The sad little monkey returned to his family unit to get nitpicked while the baby breast-fed.
All in all, this day was wonderful and unique. Kai and I got real English fish and chips before boarding our bus back, and reviewed the fact that we saw Africa and played with monkeys, two firsts, on the same day. We agreed that we will probably never return to this site, so it was certainly a day to remember.