Where are you from?
The place we live is one of the first pieces of information we exchange when meeting a person for the first time.
Over the past three and a half decades, I’ve moved 15 times and lived in 6 states. I’ve visited 35 countries and spent a month or more in 11 of them. Needless to say, my sense of “home”, my identity, had more to do with my family than the places we lived.
Then, in 2020, my marriage of 23 years ended. Not only did I lose my physical home, my family was scattered across the country as well. They say home is where the heart is. So, for the first time in my life, instead of looking for a physical place to live, or relying on other people to shape my identity, I went out in search of my own heart.
After four months exploring the western United States in a pop-up trailer, followed by several months living in youth hostels in Mexico and Costa Rica, I discovered that life isn’t about convincing someone else to fall in love with me for who I’m not: It’s about falling in love with myself, over and over, for who I am.
I love high altitude climbing and have stood on top of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the western hemisphere. Joined by my two teenage daughters, I returned to South America to complete the Asungate Trek in Peru in June of 2021, which included two passes just under 17,000 feet.
These adventures inspired me to write a book and create expeditionary retreats to allow other people to engage in immersive, physically rigorous, spiritual and cultural experiences, designed to challenge, inspire and transform.
Escape Bound is an invitation to play, to explore, to ask life’s deepest questions in the context of travel. Welcome to the adventure!
Warmly,
Christy Rounds