She's Only 27, but She's About to Do Something Most Never Will

Cassie De Pecol wants to visit all the world's countries ... fastest and youngest
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 10, 2016 4:03 PM CST
Updated Nov 11, 2016 12:30 AM CST
Around-the- World Adventurer About to Set World Record
Cassie De Pecol hopes to soon have visited every country on the planet.   (AP Photo/NASA, File)

Cassie De Pecol is only 27, but she's set to reach a milestone that most elderly people haven't accomplished: visit all of the world's countries, in her case in the fastest time and at the youngest age. The Connecticut native has been documenting her travels on the Expedition 196 site—there are 196 recognized sovereign nations in the world, though the US and some other entities don't count Taiwan—and posting pics on social media. She has just over a dozen nations left to hit, ideally by year's end, including Libya and Syria. Her expedition officially started on July 24, 2015, and she's trying to break the Guinness World Record of Graham Hughes, who accomplished the same feat in four years, 31 days in 2014 at the age of 33. (The youngest person to visit all of the nations was 24-year-old James Asquith, who did it in five years.)

Per her website, De Pecol notes her travel bug was jump-started in college when she spent time in Costa Rica. According to her Twitter bio, she's now up to 181 countries; she spends two to five days in each. Though she's so far spent about $200,000 on her journey, which has included more than 250 flights, much of that has been paid for by sponsors and by bartering for free lodging in exchange for social media posts. But what's the world traveler going to do once she's gone everywhere she could possibly go? She tells Traveller she hopes to hole up in a rented cabin in British Columbia and reminisce about her most amazing adventure, as well as inspire other people to indulge their wanderlust. (Hope she felt fine in the world's top 10 "good" countries.)

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