Monkeying Around in Gibraltar

We left Malaga on Friday Dec 27th and arrived early evening into Gibraltar. The Rock was very impressive as we came toward it with dramatic weather all around:

The Rock of Gibraltar has been occupied by the British since 1704 and the town of Gibraltar is "very" British, of course. Lots of fish and chips…

The first of the apes that we saw were actually in downtown wrecking havoc and dumping over the trash cans and entertaining all of us tourists:

We took a tour of the Rock and found it all very interesting. The views were magnificent and we could see across to the mountains of Morocco.

There was also a big cave with perfect acoustics used for many local concerts. The myth is that it is a bottomless cave that transverses under the Mediterranean to Morocco and that's how the apes came across to the Rock. 

So here is the story according to our tour guide about the apes--first of all they are called apes and not monkeys because they have no tails. In WWII Winston Churchill saw that some of the military men would bring a few apes across from Morocco as pets, so he decided to bring 26 apes across and release them on the Rock. He then declared that as long as there were apes on the Rock of Gibraltar, it would be held by the British. And so it is…

And so as we were driving up to see the apes, one jumped onto the car and came in the window. Richard and i were sitting up front with the driver and were fairly startled.

                                   

 

As you can see, we were completely taken with the apes and had the best time watching them and letting them entertain and engage with us. Monkeying around with them was the best. They had no hesitation in jumping on my head and sitting on Richard's arm. Of course they are relatively tame from all of the interaction with the tourists. As we were having our picture taken by one of them, he had no qualms about picking my pocket….

                         

       

We were told that there are 14 miles of road around the Rock and 40 miles of tunnels inside of the Rock. It was used and still is used for military purposes. We were able to tour on tunnel inside. There were many canons situated inside, all pointing toward Spain.

Looking down from the Rock we could see our Marina where EcstaSea is berthed for the moment. As you can see the airport runway is right beside the harbor.

The other side of the airport runway is Spain and you can see the road running right through the middle of it. They stop the cars on the road when an airplane is landing or taking off from the runway. Pretty wild….

This next picture shows us standing at the top of the Rock with the Mediterranean sea behind us to our right and the Atlantic sea behind us to our left. We are at the gateway and our next leg of the journey will be leaving here through the Straits of Gibraltar and moving on down the Moroccan coast to the Canary Islands.

So monkeying around here in Gibraltar has been great fun and now we are ready to move on….

Christmas in Malaga

After a 2 night crossing we arrived on December 23rd to the southern coastal town of Malaga, Spain. We had smooth seas and calm winds and a very promising beginning of our trip. Malaga is a beautiful town in the Andalucian province and was much infrluenced by the Moors years ago. Mariusz lived here for several years and so has been a good guide for us, showing us all of the highlights.

The town went  all out with it's decorations for the Holidays and we enjoyed just walking around and taking it all in.
The Captain all bundled up before the Christmas tree:

 The middle of town full of people and lovely lights:

 The trees all light up as the cars whirl around them on the avenue:

A selfie as we wish each of you a Happy Holiday Season:

 Christmas Eve was cold and blustery so we decided to eat close to the boat in the harbor area. We usually know better, but were intrigued and lured with the possibility of Mexican food. And of course, we were curious when the sign said Indian/Mexican Cuisine. You might ask "What were they thinking?", as that is just the question we were asking ourselves after the meal that truly could NOT be called cuisine of any kind!!! All of the waiters and cooks were Indian and probably did cook wonderful Indian food but Mexican?  not even close…. We did enjoy the Sangria (of course, it is Spain, by God) and laughed a lot as we listened to old renditions of Christmas carols by Jimmy Durante and Andy Williams.

Christmas day was just too cold and rainy so we never left the boat to go anywhere and ended up eating popcorn for dinner.

But we did have good wine and tapas one afternoon at one of Mariusz favorite restaurants named El Pimpi. This is the beautiful flowery entrance to it:

And these are the barrels of sweet wine in the restaurant:

Malaga is the birthplace and home of Picasso, so he is honored with a museum and many monuments such as this statue in a town square. As you can see, Mariusz is very good friends with him:

Just 2 lovers strolling the town:

The day after Christmas the rain stopped and we finally had sunshine. We had always wanted to try the Segways and this was our chance. After 3 minutes (literally) of instruction off we went up the top of the hill to the Castle. It's amazing how intuitive those things are and we really had fun.

This is at the top at the castle overlooking the bullring, the town, the harbor and the sea:

All in all, Malaga has been great fun and a good holiday experience. And now we head on down the coast to Gibraltar.

Home Again on EcstaSea

 We arrived back home on EcstaSea on Friday, December 13th in Palma, Mallorca. She fared well without us for the last 2 months and after some service and minor repairs she is ready for the Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean.

The Captain up the mast getting EcstaSea ready for the crossing….















Our good friend Dominic from Alghero, Sardinia came for a short visit to Palma to say "Goodbye" to us. He just spent the day, so it was short, but as always, full of  heart and mutual loving connection. Thank you Dom, for your visit and for your continuing friendship…
 We revisited all of our favorite places and people in Palma, saying "so long" for now. It is time to move on, but is bittersweet as we leave the Mediterranean. We have spent 6 wonderful summers here and have deep gratitude for all of the places, people we have experienced.

                                            Palma all lit up at night for Christmas Holidays….                                                                              

                                      
We have 2 great guys who will be helping us sail EcstaSea across the Atlantic, Mariusz and Xavier. Mariusz will leave with us from Palma and Xavier will join us in the Canary Islands. We appreciate their skill and expertise and expect to have a safe and fun time together.

Mariusz, Violet and son Jairo...

Xavier and his wife Lorena…..

Captain and Mariusz as we leave Palma…

The Captain and his crew for now…

So we left Palma on Winter Solstice, December 21st. EcstaSea is ready and so are we. Here we go…..

Full Moon in the Desert

This is the picture perfect full moon rising over the mountains in our desert home here in Tucson. We sit on the deck on our roof and watch her rise in all of her glory and we are always in awe and deep appreciation. We have had 2 fabulous full moons in this short time here and will see our next full moon rise back in Palma, Mallorca on EcstaSea. It is time to sail away once again…..