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For many of us travelling is an opportunity to try new things. To be daring and courageous. Almost like time travel, when you find yourself exploring unknown territory and culture it feels as though you are suspended from your reality. No longer are you in your real life. You are now somewhere completely different, somewhere where you can take risks and live freely. Of course we want to relax and enjoy ourselves, but deeper than that what are we really searching for when we choose to uproot and explore? We want to learn, we want to seek further than our comfort zones and reconnect with that inner spirit that our day to day life so often leaves ignored. When given the chance we want to seize it. Every new street, new dish, new language, new beer, new currency. It’s not easy. It’s daunting, challenging, exciting. In a phrase it’s a leap of faith. If you have ever been fortunate enough to walk the dusty streets of Valle de Viñales in Northwestern Cuba, you will be familiar with the sense of freedom I am about to describe. This sleepy town rests nestled in the bosom of the Sierra de los Organos mountains. We drove there from the hectic chaos of Havana and with every few metres ascent we made towards our heavenly destination we felt clearer and clearer about this place. Imagine colourful colonial streets marked with dusty roads where horse and man walk leisurely throughout the day. All around you is dense green and beautiful mountain ridges, colours so deep and pure you feel they must be birthed by paintbrush. Every corner leads to another stretch of pastel painted houses each with a white or wooden porch, where sits a man or woman, pooch or kitten, with a cigar resting nearby. Silent except from the low and constant droll of a nearby horse worker calling after his steed “caballllooooo”. In the morning you hear roosters and chickens. In the night, salsa and laughter as the town drinks and smokes the day to death. What further cemented this place in our minds as a celestial destination was the aspect of the unknown. I am sure there are dozens of similarly sleepy mountain edge towns where the local people live in harmony with their animals and the dew off the surrounding woodland leaves a glisten on every new street you see. But in Valle de Viñales more than anywhere else we had found ourselves truly disconnected. Having long lost our ragged copy of Lonely Planet and the internet being so sparse and difficult to obtain, we had arrived in this pocket of paradise with absolutely no expectations. One night late in a salsa bar we made, as you so often do in Cuba, a friend. His name was Leo and over a drink he invited us to come visit his family's land the next day. The next morning with an achy head and heavy eyes I found myself upon a hot leather saddle on the back of a magnificent black horse named Maximillian. Leo led us on the most stunning route I have ever witnessed. A trail lined with white and pink orchids, up and down the mountains where his family grew sugar cane, coffee beans and made cigars. At intervals we ate rice and beans with his abuela, drank fresh nutty hot coffee and puffed on mahogany smelling cigars. When we grew tired we were brought to a still clear water lake where the horses drank and we swam, sipping on sweet stinging mojitos as we dried off by the edge. We didn’t know that this was somewhere the smiling stranger at the bar could bring us. We didn’t even know if such a place existed. All we knew is that we were open and ready for opportunity. When we travel we are seeking to travel further than can be measured in miles or kilometers. You will not find your comfort zone on a map. But you will know once you have left that old familiar place, and if the opportunity arises for you, I beg you to take that leap of faith.