I've spent most of my adult life saying yes to things before I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. With a background in business and design, and a student of yoga since 1990 (before the online days!) I first turned towards styling - music and film…in Los Angeles, Austin and Nashville - which led to opening two clothing and chocolate stores that I owned for over twelve years…followed by a yoga & movement studio and a 501-c3 non-profit corporation that brought yoga and meditation to people who wouldn't otherwise have access to it. And, all the while, nearly three decades chasing an increasingly specific obsession with chocolate and cacao.

I’m lucky in that most of these ventures thrived. And some taught me things I could only have learned by watching them not work. I've been fortunate to get to try — and that's not something I take for granted (even on the hard days)

El Verde is where all of it seems to have been heading, whether I planned it that way or not: a retreat space in Peru's Sacred Valley where chocolate, geeky neuro-based movement, and balancing sustainable practices with comfort finally get to live under one roof.