Dia CacaoAmor
I'm Dia, Chaski of Cacao (cacao messenger) and ceremony weaver. Mestiza woman, I was born in Ecuador, , among volcanoes and jungle, with deep reverence for the Andean Apus, the Amazon and the Pacific coast. I grew up between the city and nature, and today my path is a bridge between Ecuador, the United Kingdom, Europe and beyond.
More about my life’s journey…
I moved to the UK in my late teens and finished school in England, studying Drama, Media Studies and Sociology. I went on to a BA in Arts Film, TV and Photography, where, among other themes, I analysed how television, film and fashion portray masculinity and femininity, and the psychological damage these images have done in the West. This is where my way of holding space comes from: questioning closed paradigms and using words, the body and art as paths of growth.
In 2010 I did my first 10-day Vipassana retreat. In 2012 my nomadic life began and, that December, in Palenque, Mexico, I took part in my first Cacao ceremony: five hours that transformed my life and set my compass. Although I grew up drinking Cacao, I knew nothing of their spiritual dimension. Between 2013 and 2018 I walked with other plant medicines, including an immersion with the Shipibo in the Amazon jungle, and I learnt about Cacao alongside Paola and Gustavo Ix in Nayarit. In 2014 I completed 200 hours of Hatha Yoga at Rishikesh Yog Peeth, followed by two months studying with a range of teachers. My interest in herbalism and Tao Tantra comes from self-directed study since 2011. In 2016, during ten months in Australia, I worked on farms, travelled alone in my campervan and shared Cacao in circles and at 11 music festivals.
In 2018 in a visit to Ecuador, the Cacao that is now CacaoAmor found me. This same year I assisted Shona Keele Jones and Leyolah Antara at their Sisterhood of the Rose retreat, the first place I shared CacaoAmor, and afterwards in their one-to-one sessions. That same year, in Peru, I spent time with the Q'eros, received my Quechua name, Yanpu Sonku, and during a Cápac Inti Raymi pilgrimage I received the vision of an online training on Cacao and the art of ceremony. I also spent three days with a Mamo Kogi elder from Santa Marta, his son and two companions, and we travelled together to Apu Ausangate.
In 2019, on a visit to the UK, I officially shared CacaoAmor’s first 100 kg. The 2020 lockdown showed me why the training had to be online: since then I have run 13 rounds and shared the programme with over 100 people. In 2021 I co-created the conscious festival Goddess of Many Names (200 people), where I stepped into my role as weaver and connector of community. I shared CacaoAmor at Medicine Festival, and for the next two years I was invited to the main stage, in front of more than a thousand people. In 2022 I returned to the farms where CacaoAmor comes from and shared a Cacao ceremony with the farmers, exchanging knowledge and making offerings to the land. I visit them every year, also offering my labour of love working with the land.
That same year I also accompanied my mother through an out of the blue terminal illness and death, a deep grief that prepared me for rebirth. In November 2023 I studied Tao Tantric Arts for Women with Minke de Vos and Shashi Soluna: three months of intensive online study and four weeks in person in Mexico. Weeks of immense learning and transformation. I was reborn like the phoenix from the ashes, and I expanded my toolkit for my ceremonies and gatherings.
I also co-produce the Temple Arena of the wonderful Unearthed Festival, an independent, family-friendly festival in Pembrokeshire, Wales, bringing together music, wellbeing and community.
Since 2021 I have co-created the annual Cacao Salvaje retreat in Spain with my soul sister Eva Monro (until 2024). In 2025 CORAZONAR was born, a gathering of conscious sensuality, Tantra and Cacao, together with Origen, a Cacao pilgrimage to Ecuador; the next one will be in December 2027.
I believe that the body is a temple and Eros a sacred path to our deepest truth. I support processes of remembering our erotic innocence and embodied joy, bringing together the ancestral wisdom of Cacao with the power of Tao Tantra, in service of life.
A Path Woven in Cacao
“I felt the spirit of Cacao blessing me and healing my heart.”
After my first Cacao ceremony, I spent weeks integrating and more time working on the footage I had filmed.
As I edited the footage, I felt a strong call to collaborate with Cacao, yet I wasn’t sure how. This question was answered after sending the final edit to Paola and Gustavo; they loved it and asked if I would be interested in visiting them, collaborating and perhaps learning more about Cacao and ceremony. I learned so much in my time with them, sharing their home, their wisdom and sitting in ceremony. For weeks, I delved deeper into the medicinal and ceremonial powers of Cacao and sowed the first seeds of ‘CacaoAmor’.
Six months later, through a dream received by medicine woman Gina LaVerde in the magical land of Joshua Tree, California,
I was asked to facilitate a Cacao Activation at a gathering. The intention was to heal the land's feminine energy. This was the first of many ceremonies that came to me: I would arrive at a place, then be asked to facilitate. For some time, I responded to Cacao's call this way, until I fully accepted the responsibility that Cacao had chosen me and I her, as an ally to spread joy and love in the world.
I have been sharing Cacao in ceremony all over the world, in many collaborations and diverse ways.
Cacao helps facilitate human connection, embodiment practices, sound-healing journeys, breathwork, yoga, meditation, somatic and sexual empowerment workshops, to name a few. Depending on the intention and the collective needs of the group, and guided by the Spirit of Cacao, each ceremony is unique.
After 5 years of sharing Cacao in ceremony and growing increasingly more aware of the struggles faced by Cacao, I was inspired to do more.
Seeking to help the lands and people of Ecuador, CacaoAmor’s first ceremonial paste blocks were made in 2018. Committed to respecting and honouring the Earth and Cacao’s natural environment, supporting sustainable agriculture and finding ways to help farmers and their families to flourish. Our aim is to keep alive traditional cultivation methods and to preserve ancient varieties of Cacao, as well as the ecosystems they support.
Cacao farmers do not receive adequate compensation for their hard work. It seems that big chocolate corporations, and to an extent consumers, care little about the lives of those who farm this magical tree, let alone about preserving ancient varieties in the natural habitat where they originated. When I founded CacaoAmor, I made a promise to always be conscious of where the Cacao I work with comes from and how those involved in its cultivation are treated.
What began as a call to collaborate with Cacao became a lifelong alliance:
Sharing their medicine in ceremony, and protecting the farmers, ancient varieties and living ecosystems that bring them to us.
My journey into becoming a Cacao alchemist…
As the demand for quality fair trade heirloom Cacao rises, so do the challenges faced by the communities.
In an attempt to help preserve Cacao, given our small-batch import, we focus our efforts on areas where we can make a meaningful difference, compared with the industry of chocolate. As such, we work with three family-run and own farms. These three remote farms grow Cacao trees in their natural habitat, surrounded by many other trees and plants and under the protection of the jungle’s canopy. These farms have been hit by a range of environmental factors. They used to have at least four good harvests a year; now they have one or two at most. Our goal is to support these farms in developing in harmony with nature and, in turn, to import larger quantities of Cacao at a time, making the most of their good harvest.
We are establishing ‘In Cacao We Trust’ a fund to provide resources in support of the farmers and the land.
A percentage of every package of CacaoAmor sold goes back to further help create more sustainable conditions for the farmers and the trees, whilst benefiting consumers with top-quality Cacao.
Furthermore, we teach the women on the farms how to ferment and dry the Cacao beans themselves, meaning they receive better rates for their Cacao, which travels directly from the farms to our chocolate laboratory to be lightly toasted and stone-ground into our signature ceremonial paste.
CacaoAmor is committed to respecting and honouring the natural environment through sustainable agriculture, supporting family-owned farms to flourish. Keeping alive traditional methods and preserving ancient varieties of Cacao, as well as an ecosystem of many other plants, trees, and creatures living with the Cacao trees. Gracias for your support!