The most famous residents of Gibralter are arguably the Macaque Monkeys—the only wild monkeys in Europe live at the top of the Upper Rock on Gibralter. Lady Luck must have been smiling on me, because last night while eating a hearty English pub dinner, I met Johnny Walker. Johnny Walker is a long time resident of Gibralter, raised by gypsies, and a bit of a gypsy himself—“El Bandolero”, they call him around town…

After a couple of pints and two hours of wonderful conversations, we agreed to meet the next morning and he’d give me a tour of the upper rock and close encounters with monkeys! Wonderful! I was so disappointed when I thought that I would have to leave Gibralter without seeing the famous monkeys…no trip to Gibralter is complete without monkeys!

They’re not kidding when they say there are monkeys in Gibralter—not just 5 or 10, but hundred of tail-less Macaque Apes, hopping about, lounging in the road, generally monkeying around…

Once in the nature preserve, we kept stopping the car and getting out to look out over the viewpoints, and because Johnny Walker’s car would spontaneously begin to smoke every once in a while. At one place we stopped there was a small pack of friendly monkeys sitting on the side of the road. Once we were out of the car, the monkey’s started jumping all over it. It had been raining on and off, so the car was quite wet. I watched them jump up, slide across the trunk or the hood, and fall off the other side, over and over and over again. It was quite comical, actually, this monkey version of a water slide.

And then, whoop! all of the sudden there was a monkey on my head! I was startled, of couse—I’ve never had a monkey on my head before—but after a couple seconds, I realized what a weird and special moment this was, and decided to just let the monkey stand there, hind legs on my shoulders, his front paws resting on top of my head… When this one decided to jump down, I suddenly was a new jungle gym for the monkeys, my arms extended on either side. At one point I had four monkeys climbing on me—one on each arm, one on my head, one handing on my back!

Maybe this is a sign of good things to come, this being the start of the new year, the year of the monkey according to the Chinese calendar, you know, monkeys climbing all over me… I’d hate to see what would happen in the year of the horse though!