The plan today was to visit the botanical gardens nice and early before the tour groups arrived. It was a long drive of almost 2 miles to get there. We were not too sure what to expect and so were going more in hope than anticipation.
The gardens were lovely. All four of us like gardens and in particular the tropical style gardens being grown here. There were also some ‘healing’ baths we could have gone in, but to be honest they didn’t look nowhere near as appealing as the sulphur ones. We walked up to see Diamond Waterfall which was good. As we did it started to rain. In a rainforest – who would have thought it. As we found shelter Karen took the opportunity to purchase a local Christmas Decoration made from a Calabash Pod which was quite reasonably priced.
It was another long drive of another 2 miles to the Toraille Waterfall. It was getting busy outside as there were already some of the small tour buses parked up. This is the most famous of the St Lucian waterfalls and the one that people get in the water to have their photo taken under it. We all took our swimming costumes but no one really fancied getting in the water as the changing facilities afterwards were not great. So I ventured into the water with my shirt on trying to avoid getting really wet. The water was flipping freezing. Also, as it was a natural pool the water cascaded into, the water bed was uneven, stony and slippery. I nearly unintentionally took a full body dip. Despite giving Karen my phone, the photos she took failed to capture me in the water almost under the waterfall, so we have no record of it.
Then we thought would try and find the beach at Anse Chastenet which was supposed to be good. The road to it was as treacherous as the one to our villa. Unbeknown to us the beach was at the Jade Mountain Resort which is where all the celebrities stay. The rooms here start at £1300 per night. The celebrities arrive by helicopter from the main airport thus avoiding the ridiculous drive.
Instead, we headed to the Rabot Restaurant which is part of the Hotel Chocolat estate. It was lovely and felt just right. The service and view of the Pitons in the dusk was marvellous. Although we all had just the one course, we were given some Cacao bread and divine chocolate dip with chocolate butter along with an aperitif to start with and some free chocolates at the end. Karen & I both had the most fantastic Caesar Salad with Caribbean marinated chicken and topped with Cacao nibs. Everything about this place got a big thumbs up from us.
It was 11pm by the time it finished and so we all retired to bed immediately afterwards.
