Pangaea: those were the days...

When I finally got back from Portugal, I got a little cold. So, after a week of staying inside the house and not doing much besides going to school, I went to Gibraltar.
I decided to start putting up maps of the places I go, so you know where it is that I'm actually describing. Anyway...

For those of you who do not know what or where Gibraltar is, I am here to tell you!! Gibraltar is a territory of no more than 6 square kilometers at the southern tip of Spain. It is actually under British rule, as it has been since the 18th century, and Spain has been trying to get it back ever since. So in essence, I was in a British territory yesterday (Saturday, March 7), where they use the British pound sterling (but still accept the Euro) and speak english (while most people speak spanish still, anyway). And what Gibraltar is most famous for, of course, is it's huge, enormous, I don't know what other word to use for how large it is, rock. But before I get to it, it is also the way in which the Muslims came into Spain in 711 and conquered the territory for 800 years. And finally, it is on the north end of the Strait of Gibraltar, overlooking the most northern mountains of Morocco.

So, we got to the border and hopped into small buses to take us up the rock. The rock is made up of limestone and I believe was an island for sometime, but now it's narrowly connected to the peninsula. We stopped first at Europa point, which was a light house that I believe can span 7 miles worth of light, and when I finally realized our British tour guide was measuring things in miles, I was ecstatic because it's still so hard for me to measure things in meters.


From there we went up about 1000 more feet (or was it meters? now I don't remember) and hit up St. Michael's Cave. The rock is filled with caves. "Over 140 have been discovered so far. St. Michael’s Cave is a Cathedral Cave long believed to be bottomless, probably giving birth to the story that Gibraltar was linked to Africa by a subterranean passage over 15 miles long under the Straits of Gibraltar." I copied that from my information guide because I was too lazy to reword it. (some laziness, right? I know) But anyway, this cave was also turned into an emergency hospital during WWII, although it was never used. Now they use it for concerts sometimes. I tried to take some pictures inside, but it was pretty hard lighting to get anything good. I'll see what I can show you.


Finally, we went down to what they call the "Apes Den" because Gibraltar is the only place in Europe where there free living/wild monkeys. They call them apes, but they were definitely little monkeys. They love food too, so they were climbing on people's shoulders for photographs if they were given food. Or they stole things right out of your hand, like a girl's icecream, or some guy's bag of doritos. They were pretty harmless though, and awesome to get that close to.


It was a pretty short trip, but it was soooo amazing being there. Everything was awesome--being in the caves and being close to the monkeys. It was a great day too, which apparently is a little rare for Gibraltar during the winter. Also, there is one airport in Gibraltar and because the place is so small, when a plane flies onto the runway, they have to close down the main street because the runway crosses that street! That was great to find out. Here's the runway:

Yeah, so it was fantastic and I hope that was a shorter blog for you all. I've been hearing about some of you out there that can't get through a whole blog of mine because I write so much. Well, I'm just trying to give you the facts!! haha. Just joking.

Forecast for the week: I head to the Canary Islands. I thought Gibraltar was going to be the closest I would get to Africa (and considering mileage it might just be) but these islands are one more step south. woooo

Haley