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Getting to Valle Nevado is half the fun. A serpentine road from Santiago wriggles up the spine of Andean peak for an hour, then traverses a valley and finally up again. The hotel is perched on a rugged mountain crag at 3,000m: no other sign of human development is visible from this spot, which is close to the Argentinean border.

Reggae goes in and out. It sounds so good, it feels so good and feels so tropical, but the problem is not everybody is Caribbean. Not everyone is going to sound authentic doing it, and sometimes it comes off cheesy when other people do it.

Latin music has many international influences - pop, rock, country, Brazilian sounds, and alternative styles.

I've been down there 6 times and there's nothing like Brazilian percussion.

One night I'll be in Los Angeles and it'll be a Latin crowd, and then another night I'll go to Fresno and it'll be an all-black crowd. To me, that's the beauty of the music.

Cuba is such a beautiful country, and everywhere you go, there's music and people dancing - especially in Havana.

In Brazil, you buy tickets to go to the stadium to watch the carnival, but in Trinidad, you buy a costume and take part. There are very few things that can rival that experience.

My own style depends on my location. Hippie-chic in Costa Rica, tailored and clean in N.Y.C., and great jeans and comfy tops with fun sneakers in L.A.

There's a particular style that is very Peru that you don't see anywhere else; it's got so many different imprints. When you mix Incan minimalism with the heavy, ornate Spanish Baroque, it is very interesting.

We have a documentary film festival in Mexico. It's really original. It's called Ambulante, and it's a film festival that travels around several cities in Mexico.