All Five Senses...

When people say that travel broadens the mind, what they really mean is that it opens up your past, alters and influences your future and gives you a different present. Travel opens up memories. It can be the smell of sun tan lotion or coconuts, or hearing Buena Vista Social Club when you walk into a bar. Instantly I am brought back to Mediterranean holidays with my family and Elaine, Dave, Chloe and Katie, playing Uno on the decking with Dave and some of the happiest memories of my childhood. Travel also inspires our future. Swapping stories with other backpackers opens you up to new possibilities. New places sound so authentic and exciting when told by people who have lived there, retold in their accents. Already I am itching to go to Vancouver thanks to Kyle and Kirsten. You also swap stories of where you have been, and realise everyone has something different to tell; each person's perspective is new.

At home we are locked inside our heads. Travel gives us peripheral vision. It makes us appreciate the world that is around us, and grateful at the remarkable mechanical ability our bodies have to absorb this world. I was taken aback by how colourful Little Corn is, an unreal snapshot of blue sea, white sand and palm trees and the sunsets illuminating the sky with pink and orange.

Food always tastes better on holiday. Little Corn Island is surrounded with the most amazing produce; fresh lobster and fish, mouthwatering Cuban pork sandwiches, homemade fried chicken, gallo pinto, breakfast burritos, watermelon, star fruit, pineapples and mangos. Every mouthful so much more intense than the subtle flavours back home. Everything grows as if its on growth hormone, thanks to the scorching sun. Mango trees shoot up so quickly, huge bushes of mint and basil grow on your doorstep. I have never eaten so well on holiday.

Breakfast at The Lighthouse

Last night Jose - local man who helps at the lighthouse hostel - invited us for a meal at his home. He has nine children and five grandchildren and has not left the island for ten years. A group of us went at dusk to his house right on the beach. He cooked us a delicious soup on an open stove with coconut, yucca and fish caught a metre away from we're we were sitting. Palm trees hung over the water lit by moonlight and the open fire. I felt so replete and happy.

Back home everything is silent. People plugged into little white headphones, desperately avoiding eye contact with each other. Here, reggae music wafts from houses, men playing guitars, children play in the streets. People make an effort to talk to you and to know what has brought you here. Bartenders remember you like you've been here for years. Travel reminds us what we truly value, and what is unimportant. This world is nothing without an outstretched hand, a welcoming smile, our friends and family and the kindness of strangers. We travel so we can bring a piece of this home, remind ourselves to be grateful and to fall in love with the world again.

Imogen