The Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Gardens was a short drive from the Parrot Sanctuary but you circle around and head toward the North End. 

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This 65 acre park opened in 1994 with a memorable ceremony by Monarch, Her Royal Highness, Elizabeth II, on her second visit to the Cayman Islands as Head of State. Upon opening, only the Woodland Trail was completed at the time. It has expanded a lot since then with all the different areas. If you didn't know already, the Cayman Islands are British overseas territories. 

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The Gardens consist of 7 different areas to explore: the Floral Garden, Orchid Boardwalk, Xerophytic Garden, Heritage Garden, Woodland Trail, and the Children’s Garden and a Visitors Center. There is also a Blue Iguana Conservation. We had only seen one or two iguana's since being here but they weren't blue at all. I couldn't wait to see an iguana that was really BLUE!

As we pulled in, even the entrance was very nicely landscaped so I knew we were in for a treat. 

After parking we decided it was time for a little lunch. We were going to need a little something in our bellies before starting this long journey.

As you arrive at the Visitor Center, with extra cold a/c inside, you are greeted with a gift shop area. We paid $20/pp US to get in and they handed us a map of the park and gave us directions on which way to go. We knew we were in for a real work out today because this place was pretty big and I wasn't about to miss any of it.

We headed out the doors and into a beautiful area with lush greenery and ponds.

We headed into the first area: The Orchid Park. It is home of 10 of the 28 orchids on the Cayman Islands and 4 of them are not found anywhere else on earth. They also had the Cayman's national flower: the Wild Banana Orchid. There wasn't a lot in bloom and I guess I pictured it to be a little different. They had them attached and growing from the trees in the area. There was a wooden bridge-like pathway that you walked on to get around, which was really neat and pretty. 

But to our surprise, one of the most interesting things we found in this area was something up in the tree...and it was amazing to see!

YES! Wild Cayman Parrots up in the tree. They were so pretty and neat to watch. 

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Then we moved on to the next area, which would be the Children's Garden Development. 

It had so many neat areas for children to play in and some really neat sculptures as well. I had read that they had a sculpture park (Davinoff's concrete sculpture park) on that end of town, but then had read that it had been moved or donated to the gardens. 

This area had a pond with lilies, bridges and even a small water park for the kids. It had water spouts and a bucket that would fill up with water and dump every so often.

There was a large climbing wooden play area (and I can't believe I didn't even take a picture of it) but we hung out underneath it because Sakari wanted to swing.

This is called the Rotary Schoolhouse and was opened in 2019 by Prince Charles of Whales during his visit to the Cayman Islands. It will serve to purpose nature education and botanical science.

Out back of the schoolhouse they had different areas that looked like a place where they maybe plant flowers to grow. We found something other than flowers back there. I believe we found our first "blue" iguana...only he wasn't very blue like I had imagined.

There was also a neat area with little round huts (3 of them) made of large branches. Really cool area.

It was time to move onto the next area and as we headed out, we came across....a REAL BLUE IGUANA! It was large and so beautiful!

We headed over to the Heritage Garden. There was several small houses that were from the 20th century (restored after being brought to the park) that was owned by an East End settler, Rankine. It is surrounded by fruit trees, other trees that was used to make thatch rope to sell and trade and a medicinal garden showing various plants used to homeopathically treat illnesses and injuries. It was their very own backyard drugstore. There were plants for a chest cold, toothache, colic, colds and fevers. 

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It had a traditional sand garden that traces back to the European cottage gardens. Some are kept completely free of grass to help eliminate insects and provide a place for children to play. The yards were swept with a rosemary broom every Saturday so the garden would look its best for Sunday. The white beach sand was often replaced at Christmas time although a little extra would be added during the year.

There was an outhouse out back

There was a separate house out back as well and it was the kitchen. Most Caymanian homes had an outside kitchen set apart from the main house in order to reduce heat and the risk of fire. The food was prepared here, dishes washed and salted meats was also kept here.

Next up was the Xerophytic Garden that is designed with plants that prefers dry climates and are drought tolerant. It was opened in 2013.

We headed to the COLOUR GARDEN next

Here was a map of the area. I was getting excited because it looked like it was going to be beautiful and loaded with colorful flowers.

The color explosion immediately hit us in the face and walking the trails in this garden was AMAZING! THIS is what I think of when I hear the word "botanical". Everything was so lush and green.

We came across a very large tree and it was so cool because it not only went up in the air but also sideways.

Then we started hearing a lot of noise...squawking noises above our heads. It was a bunch of Cayman birds flying around again. They were just everywhere (wait until you hear them in the video).

With all of these flowers, there was tons of butterflies everywhere as well.

I guess in the colorful garden there are colorful iguana's to match. Pretty cool looking.

The trail led us to a large body of brown water and a trail. We were entering the Woodland Trail area. It was the first exhibit here in 1994 when the park opened. This lake is Kary's Pond and provides a great place for birdwatchers to sit and take it all in. The trail goes through swampy areas, dry areas and lakes. It is around a 1.5 mile loop trail and will loop around and take you to the Blue Iguana habitat.

For those that can't do the walk, insert the previously me emoji here, you can still get to the habitat without doing the mile walk. But, we are up for the challenge today and since walking actually improves my mobility and makes my leg feel better. I walk around 5-6 miles every day at work so this little 1+ mile walk is gonna be great! My family didn't seem as enthused. 

The walk was pleasant despite the humidity and heat but we eventually made it to an area that had a wall around it and was blue. This was the Blue Iguana Habitat. I couldn't wait to see it!

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There were a bunch of blue walls dividing the different iguana pens and each had an iguana in it with their name on the wall. There were SO many! I couldn't believe how big this place was. They had so many BLUE IGUANA'S!  They were so pretty. It reminded me of the blue lizards in Aruba. So cool. 

They had cages for the smaller iguana's stating that they were kept in there until they grew bigger. The pens would keep them safe from predators and increase their survivability. 

It was time to head back to the Visitors area.

We had a great time and the grounds were beautiful. I took SO MANY pictures but of course can't share them all. I hope you liked the ones that I did share. 

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Outside of the Visitors Center there was a water fountain so we stopped for a quick picture.

As we pulled out, we seen this sign...oops, a little late for that but at least we didn't hear a "thump thump" when I pulled out. Only a swish swish of my windshield wipers. At least today I didn't take any wrong turns or circle any roundabouts several times. Well wait, we didn't go into town so maybe that's why. 

Here's a video of our day...enjoy!