RB with wildlife on the Rock of Gibraltar.

Yes, that is a monkey on my head. Fun times. Technically it’s an ape, since it doesn’t have a long tail, but…regardless, it was on my person.

I was in Spain on vacation with friends. We decided to rent a car and take a day trip to see the Rock of Gibraltar. We rented a tour guide to take us to the top in his van. These apes/monkeys were all over the place and he had a fake rubber snake in the van to scare them off when they jumped on the car. (Btw – I have a completely irrational fear of snakes. Even fake ones.) He told us how there were two “gangs” of apes living at the top of the rock and to make sure not to eat anything, especially anything sweet outside once we got to the top because the monkey/apes would swoop down and steal it. Note taken.

We toured the caves and went to the gift shop. I was jumpy since the monkey/apes were everywhere and still afraid of the rubber snake from the car. We walked outside to take some photos from the top of the rock. My friend thought it would be funny to get a staged picture taken with a monkey on her back placed by the guide. She chickened out, but in the meantime, one monkey scaled my back and sat on my shoulders, another jumped on my back and yet another jumped on my arm. Two of my friends thought it was hilarious and started taking pictures. Another high-tailed it out of the area on his way back to the van.

What was going through my head? 1. They were going to scratch my eyes out and take my sunglasses. 2. They were going to rip my hair out. 3. They were going to pee on me. None of these things, in my mind, were good. Staying calm, I eventually, asked the guide to please take them off of me. Laughing, he complied. Being the fierce rogue that I am, I promptly burst into tears. It turns out my favorite vanilla perfume (that I still wear) was the culprit. Needless to say, it was a jittery ride back down and I not-so-nicely told the guide he’d better not even think of busting that fake snake out again.