Cassie DePecol is the first woman to travel to all 196 countries in the world. She is also the fastest person, man or woman, to complete this journey. Most of her trip was paid for by sponsors and she was a representative of the International Institute of Peace Through Tourism. She met students and officials and gave talks about the power of sustainable tourism to improve the world.
She says that “Since high school, I had this feeling that I’d do something major in life, change the world, something like that.” She says that she wasn’t too thrilled with the direction that her life was headed and she also had anxiety over not knowing how much time she has left. She then decided to travel the entire world in two years.
She said that she did most of her planning through Google Flights, Trip Advisor, and Airbnb. She said that she planned last minute a lot which ended up saving her money because if her flight was canceled or delayed, it wouldn’t throw off her entire schedule. She says that she spent 2-5 days in each country and wishes she spent more time in the Middle East and Switzerland.
When asked her craziest, scariest moments on the journey she said “I was held at the border control in Libya because they thought I was in the CIA, I experienced a red light robbery by 4 teenage boys who had knives on them in Lima, and I had to pay a bribe in the Congo for not having proof of my Polio vaccine” and when asked if she has any advice she said “If you have a dream, quest, goal, etc., do not let anyone deter you from pursuing it. If you have a dream, quest, goal, etc., do not let anyone deter you from pursuing it.”