June 20th started off a bit rocky, but it ended up just fine. We (Cathie, Greg, Michael and I) had planned to attend a tea party at Tower Estate, but when we got there, no one seemed to be there. All of the doors were locked.

So we roamed around the grounds, which are lovely, and admired the flowers.

After we enjoyed visiting the grounds, we drove to Saint George to have lunch at BB’s.

We spent the next (the 21st) day with Cathie and Greg as well. This time we drove to Annandale Falls. It was primarily a stop along the 1.5 hour drive to the Hash walk. The falls were nice, but not striking. The paths near the falls were pretty, though. So we walked around a bit, then had a beer before getting back into the car to head to the Hash.

The Hash walk was almost entirely through the jungle. It was pretty flat and quite short. Super easy! Although I did get lost one time following people who went the wrong direction. (We figured it out quickly, though, and got on the right path.) Then I went a short way down the wrong path when I was in the lead.

How does this happen, you ask? Because the path is only marked at points along the way. You look for this to know if you are on the right path:

That is shredded paper. Depending on the path, it could be easy to take a wrong turn. If you don’t see paper within a decent distance, or if someone is coming at you saying “on back” (meaning, we went the wrong way and are coming back), you know you are going the wrong way.

Here are a few pictures from the Hash, some taken by me and some from their website.

Drying their clothes . . . and their corn. 🙂

As you might recall from a previous post, the Hashers are drinkers with a running problem. Evidence that they are drinkers:

This was the route. You don’t know the route, the conditions of the path, or the length of the walk beforehand.

Final stats:

The forecast was for rain on the 22nd, but we decided to go for it anyway. Our plan was to hike around Grand Etang Lake, perhaps followed by a second hike.

Michael turned back because the path was slippery (and he has his brittle bones) and he was afraid of slipping and falling.

Cathie, Greg and I continued on our way along the muddy and wet path. About 30 minutes (?) later, it started pouring rain. I mean, we could have lathered our hair and rinsed it twice. We kept going for a bit, then took out our phones to see where we were. We discovered that we were only about a third of the way around the lake. We decided to go back. By now our feet and shoes were soaking wet and muddy. But we took the opportunity to enjoy ourselves and our surroundings. It was pretty!!

As we walked back to the car, there was a gentleman who was calling to the monkeys. He feeds them bananas, so they are eager to visit. What fun!

Just one more monkey picture. 🙂

I posted the monkey pictures on Facebook and learned about other experiences. One of my friends had her glasses stolen by a monkey. The guide had to bribe the monkey to give them back. Another had a monkey jump on her head. 🙂 🙂

Monday was scheduled to be another rainy day so we canceled our hiking plans and chilled.

Tuesday was a big day: Belmont Estate and the Tree-to-Bar Chocolate Tour

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“This sensory tour is a full immersion into the heart of handcrafting organic chocolates from tree to bar. Guests experience the touch, taste, scents, sights and sounds of cocoa and chocolate as they become fully involved in the delicate process of creating this Food of the Gods. The tour begins with a visit to the greenhouse to learn about the propagation of cocoa seedlings and cuttings with our guests having an opportunity to propagate. We then explore the cocoa fields for a demonstration and participation in the harvesting, cracking, collecting and tasting of fresh beans before visiting the fermenting and drying areas. Our guests are then given a detailed discovery tour of our chocolate factory to learn the intricacies of small batch chocolate making.

This walking tour is designed for those wanting an in-depth experience of the complete bean-to-bar process. It takes the discerning chocolate lover on a fascinating journey of handcrafting chocolate and allows for a full immersion on the hard work that goes into it. This tour package includes our signature blended drink called ‘Chocolate Monkey,’ bottled water and a three-course, chocolate-themed table d’hôte lunch plus our very own Belmont Estate chocolate bars to cap off this sweet and savoury sensory tour!”

Jason (“Jay”) was our guide, and boy was he excellent! He started with this table. He wanted to know which ones we could identify. Michael and I were horrible at it. Cathie was able to identify a good two-thirds of them. These all come from plants they grow on the estate.

The description does the tour justice so I won’t provide any more general information, but I do want to share one particular aspect of the tour.

When Jay took us to the cocoa fields, there was an employee there (whose name I unfortunately forgot) who showed us the tool he used to cut the cocoa pods from the branches. Then he demonstrated and gave each of us a try.

This is the tool (below). You can either use the flat edge to push or the hooked edge to pull. The cocoa pods are very close to the branch, so you need to get the tool in the exact right spot. You don’t want to damage the tree.

The tool has a very long handle. Some of the cocoa pods are way high in the tree. (You use a machete to cut off the pods from the low branches.)

Here he is explaining then demonstrating how to cut off the pod (Jay is in the black shirt in the background):

Then it was our turn. Here’s Michael maneuvering into position and getting it on the first try!

I was successful as well.

Poor Cathie, Michael and I cut off the four lower ones so her pod was way up high and harder to see. Here’s the guy pointing way up to the cocoa pod while Cathie is saying, “Way up There?” But she got it!

This is the inside of the cocoa pod:

We each picked a bean from the pod and sucked off the white part. I don’t think it is particularly tasty but some do. This is what the inside of the raw bean looks like – it is purple:

Let’s talk more about the cocoa tree. The cocoa pod begins like this, a flower:

The flower is very delicate. When Hurricane Beryl came through in July of 2024, it blew nearly all of the flowers off of the trees, which hurt the cocoa production of 2025. When we were visiting, Jay told us that there would normally have been a lot more cocoa on the estate. Hopefully it will recover in 2026.

Anyway, the next step after the flower is this – a tiny pod:

The pods can be various colors. This is a red one (sorry for the blurry picture, but the leaf is nice and clear! hee hee):

After the cocoa beans are picked, they are fermented and dried. They are fermented in these boxes:

They are dried on these huge trays, which are pushed inside when it is wet and pulled out on these big rails when it is dry. There are two levels of “trays,” which is why there are two levels of rails. The bottom rail is longer for the lower tray.

Someone shuffles the beans every 30 minutes to help them dry. No walking (you don’t want to break the beans), just shuffling.

The other option is to use the green house to dry the beans. The benefit here is that it is always dry, so the beans don’t have to be pulled in and out on the heavy trays. They are still stirred, but not by foot:

This is what the beans look like on the inside at this point:

We continued the tour. Random pictures of the grounds:

The fruit pictured below was yummy. It tasted like an apple. Maybe it is a kind of apple!

It was time to taste some “homemade” cheese! They make it right here in this room. We tasted two kinds. One had a bit of a spice to it and the other had some garlic and something else. Both were simply delicious!

And now to the chocolate factory. We first learned more about how chocolates were made, then we were given the opportunity to have the chef prepare our own custom chocolate bars.

Here’s the chef and some chocolate that is cooling:

Ingredients from which to choose, trays/molds for the chocolate bars, and our choices:

Then just add the chocolate!

It was time for lunch. Our chocolate bars would be ready by the time we were done. Lunch was amazing and filling. I gave most of my dessert to Michael.

The plate on the left is the main course, of course. I had fish with what they said was a chocolate sauce, but it didn’t take chocolaty to me. But it was good. The plate on the right is the dessert plate. The two “balls” on the dessert plate are ice cream. I ate the peanut butter ball. The other two things were some kind of cake.

We passed by a Christmas Palm on the way to/from the restaurant:

And here are our custom-made bars:

And the “standard” ones we bought:

We’ve been chilling since then. We go to the swimming pool every day to swim, read, and drink rum drinks. 🙂 Sometimes I walk to the grocery store. It is very relaxing.

Seahike will be hauled out in two days. We will move to a hotel at that time. We want to be here for about a week after she’s hauled out before we fly to the USA.