The Surreal Adventure

Hi All,

New to the community here but am very excited about the social aspects and potential. I wanted to share one of the most magical places I had the pleasure of visiting last month. We had just finished a commercial shoot that took us from The Netherlands around Portugal all the way to drumroll Gibraltar. It's tiny -- less than three square miles -- and it has The Rock that you may have heard so much about. The good news is this allowed us to see almost all of it in the 4 hours we had before our flight home.

From where the above photo was taken, you can see Africa -- Morocco, to be exact. Which, in and of itself is insane; and looking in another direction, you can spot Spain. I was told that over 90% of the people living here are born and raised, that Gibraltar is a British territory, but Spanish is spoken. It was also home to many people from Genoa who settled in Catalan Bay (pictured below), where they would primarily fish to earn a living. This bay is also referred to as the Italian Village.

We drove from one side of Gibraltar to the other and it took about five minutes. We drove through The Rock itself, which is made up of Jurassic Limestone -- porous -- so it it absorbs water -- and in turn produces vegetation on the rock itself. It's actually really impressive and I know for a fact that locals are super proud of that -- in addition to the MONKEYS that live atop the rock. Apparently, the monkeys used to terrorize the town around sunset in massive groups until the Gibraltar government and some behavioral psychologists found a way to make them stop using conditioning. Anyways, we had to go see these Barbary Macaques -- PS: wiki says Gibraltar is the only European territory with a wild monkey population and this is it!

They are, in fact, quite bold -- sometimes aggressive. The macaques are aware that bags often mean food -- so they will pursue if you have a handbag or plastic bag of any kind. It's just how they are. It takes a cable car to get up to the rock, and as soon as you arrive, monkeys are there (looking cute as hell) but ready to snatch.

There's a thriving population (controlled by the government) up there -- a hierarchy of dominant and submissive monkeys all living together. Super fascinating. Also, from the top of the rock you get beautiful views -- though one side of it is being hit with intense ocean winds -- the other side tends to be calmer.

It's a strange duality between the busy harbors and city below and the natural, wild energy that exists at the top of the rock. It simultaneously felt like being in a mixture of countries and a variety of continents, even though Gibraltar is less than 6 miles in length. We lucked out with the weather, as you can see -- and even in these four hours, I felt like we had experienced a true European gem. Oh, and in case you're curious, trying to buy a home there is $$$$$$$$$. I suppose you could go live at the top of the rock with the macaques.