The British Gibraltar pound and the Euro are currency here. It's something of a meeting of cultures just a airport walk from Spain proper. There was a square that offered tapas in one restaurant, fish and chips at an English pub and a Burger King next door. There's a Hindu Temple, a Jewish Synagogue, an Anglican Church and a Swami coming the next week to those who wish to listen. There's a noticeable percentage of Spanish speakers walking through the streets and working here. There are Arab women toting along pre-schoolers alongside the white beer-bellied, and overall, round, tourists in shorts   -- all a jarring contrast to the Spain we'd seen. There's a change of atmosphere here. Somehow there is still a pervasive Britishness about the place. It may be that mobile phones don't ring so much here as throughout Spain. Maybe its the sudden appearance of polka dots, the thickness of accent and density of pubs. It may be the signs to historical battle monuments. But whatever it was, just across the airfield from La Linea Spain, here was little Britain with the round accent under palm trees and cacti.

		Beyond the pubs and aerial tram (view from a station in title banner above), there is also is a wildlife walk and spectacular St. Michael's cave. A Neanderthal skull has been found in the caves and pottery thousands of years old. It had been prepped for use as a wartime E/R but never used as such. In-depth spelunking tours have to be arranged 3 days in advance so we couldn't take them in in that detail but what we did see was beautiful. Even the plastic chairs, busloads of people and speakers of the amphitheater were a drop in the ocean against such dimensions of space and stalagmites.
		Gibraltar is the rock famous for the nimble "Barbary Apes" who live in various wild troupes. A veterinarian's note stated increased contact with people cause family breakdowns in the troupes and to keep your distance -- but keeping the monkeys and people apart is the people's idea. Tour bus drivers know how to bang empty bottles and wave rubber snakes to prevent the monkeys from coming into the van for a ride. The troupe happily uses the van tops are playgrounds and viewing platforms. One primate tried to use her fingernails to rip into Brian's plastic sac having learned plastic contains treats. Another jumped onto my back pack, a third looked me steadily in the eye then tried to snatch my hat. It is quite a challenge for authorities while people hand feed and get their children to pose for up close photos in the midst of a "cute" screaming tailless monkey fight after one of the adolescent monkeys punched a young one and provoked the others to chase the adolescent. The children we saw still could register the emotional content of the fight though and kept their distance.

On the rock of Gibraltar there are a few streets. Most of the island is a no-tourist military zone, the rest somewhere for people to go and buy cigarettes, alcohol and jewelry tax free. A few people left with huge sacs of cartons of cigarettes.

Unfortunately the ferry we read the times for an the internet was not current information. The same agency no longer sells the tickets and the ferry only runs once a week not daily. As a result we had to double back by bus to Algeciras in order to get to Tanger.

Above is the Algeciras harbour as the 800 person capacity ferry lumbers out with French-written menu and Spanish speaking crew, French tickets and Spanish boarding passes. The passengers are mostly Muslim with a few British tourists. Our menu selection is of course Fanta, Coca Cola,  sandwiches along with  lasagna, Heineken beer, French fries and bottled water.	Not one drink machine on board worked but most people spent a good part of the passage in line to be checked through Moroccan customs on the way over anyway. The ferry was smooth and steady unlike others we'd been on.	The coast of Tanger comes out of the horizon. It took 6 linesmen and 3 huge winches to rope us to the dock.

The world is so small and people travelling or migrating are everywhere. Guatamalan singers and Southeast Indian store clerks in Spain, British people everywhere, Coca cola permeating everywhere. People we met are interconnected around the globe.

On the ferry-ride to Africa, we read the American Spanish version of Reader's Digest we picked up in Philadelphia. In it was a story about Learning Disability (part of my field) of a women who lives in Brian's hometown and started a business that I knew of though a co-worker in Ottawa.

Travel brings home understandings of what we take for granted -- such as at what wall height to find light switches, to get a hotel room with towels and  toilet paper or else a functioning bidet, being able to understand directions, and knowing what to do when you are directed to the toilet. (In Morocco some toilets are a porcelain surface on the floor with intergral foot depressions and a closed hole like you have in chemical toilets.) Travelling brings home how thin and intermingled the variety of surface differences are between people (language, accent, religion, color, class, age) among one species.

2002, Pearl and Brian Pirie      | Trip Main Page |