Friday, November 6, 2009

Grand Cayman Island - Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park




The day we chose to go to Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park turned out to be one of the hottest days of our vacation. It was very close to 100 degrees F, and very, very humid. If we carried the kids even for a little ways, we were both dripping in sweat and very tired. We also were pretty disappointed that we didn't see any iguanas running around, something which the park prides itself.

However, the grounds were gorgeous, and I am glad that we did see the park while were were there. The park opened in 1994, with Queen Elizabeth II herself here to do the honors.

We started out near the visitor's center and spent some time near a lily pond.







Lizzards scurried up the walls of buildings, roamed the grounds and simply delighted the kids. Jared loved to try to catch them. In fact, we even had a baby lizzard in our house later on the next week.



We made our way along the trail and came first to the Heritage Garden, a place that showcases plants unique to the Cayman Islands. An old Caymanian house, circa 1900, was brought into the park, restored, and displayed to give visitors a sense of how Caymanians lived in the late 19th century.






I had to include a picture of a spider web for Jared's sake. He's currently obsessed with spiders!


We then worked our way down the trail to end up at a three acre lake. It was a long hot walk, but, like I said before, the flowers were absolutely gorgeous.






A veranda near the lake provided the cool breeze we needed badly after our walk. We spent a few minutes chillling out here before taking a brief peek at the lake (kind of anticlimatic) and heading back to the car.





No comments: