We have a fairly quiet day planned with a Bio luminescent kayak tour at 7:30 Pm so we had some time in the morning. Conrad and I decided to go and visit Queen Elizabeth II Royal Botanical Garden. It was just a few miles from the house and our Boat guide had recommended it for seeing Cayman Parrots and blue Iguana.
There were stunning flowers, some of which we had never seen and we also ran into 2 Blue Iguana, one named Johnny and one named Mary. We knew their names because Hal the garden tour guide was waiting for a large tour group to arrive and so he decided to give us a private tour in his golf cart, including some places that were not open to guests. He knew the gardens deeply and knew where to find every animal. He toured us around for about an hour until his group arrived. It was awesome.
water lilies near the entrance
water lilies near the entrance
Orchids in the Orchid preservation garden
Orchids in the Orchid preservation garden
Orchids in the Orchid preservation garden
Johnny the Blue Iguana
The lake
Cool palm tree native to the Caymans
The Lake
Giant tree with tiny little finger like roots
Cayman Woodpecker aka west indies woodpecker
Cayman woodpecker very similar to the Red bellied woodpecker that we have but different
An original home moved to the garden
Unique fan shaped thatching from the native Cayman plam tree
Cayman parrot
Cayman parrot
Cayman parrot
More parrots
Mary the blue iguana – about 2 feet long
Mary the blue iguana – about 2 feet long
Johnny the Blue Iguana – about 3 feet long
Johnny the Blue Iguana – about 3 feet long
bananaquit
bananaquit
After hurricane Ian the government put this up for parrots to nest in and they have used it for a few years.
Suicide plant aka Caryota or Giant fishtail Palm – the flowers are only produced when the tree is ready to die
teddy bear palm – the bark is soft and a little bit fuzzy
Cup of Gold Vine
Cup of Gold Vine
turtle hanging out in a pond
Jade vine
Jade vine
flowers from the Jade vine
Around 7 PM we left to go to Rum Point to meet up with Cayman Kayaks for a night tour of a luminescent Bay. We each got into a 2 person kayak and followed our leader who was from Ireland but I can’t remember how to spell his name. We went out to several locations in the bay where moving your paddle or your had in the water produced a neon blue effect.
Luminescence
Because it was so dark out on the bay we were able to see the stars and planets quite well. It was beautiful and we all really enjoyed the trip.