Leah Barton

Field Notes, Profile, Stowaway Fall 2017

Word Count: 925
Title: First, Fastest, Youngest

On February 2, Cassandra De Pecol entered Yemen, becoming the first documented woman to
travel to every country in the world. This record-breaking journey, called Expedition 196, took
her just over 18 months to complete. While she also became the youngest American to travel to
every sovereign nation, as well as the fastest person by finishing in the shortest amount of time,
her expedition was designed to accomplish much more.

Expedition 196 is a mission to promote positive peace through sustainable tourism, educating
the millennial generation while also positively influencing young women around the world to
further their potential, the 27-year-old said in an email.

Cassies passion for international travel began when she traveled to Costa Rica for her
universitys global studies program. There, she had her first experiences living among locals and
studying environmental and political issues in those areas.

Going to college my first year in Costa Rica really influenced my decision to just see every
country, but I had never traveled outside of the country besides Canada before then, Cassie said.

By the time she was 21, Cassie had saved $2,000 through babysitting and lifeguarding so that she
could travel to Europe with her brother Jason. After spending a month exploring Belgium,
Germany, and Switzerland, Cassie decided to stick around instead of returning home.

During the next two years, she traveled to 25 countries. She couch-surfed and even slept in train
stations, eating as little as possible so that she could put her money toward more experiences.

It was here that I really traveled off the beaten path, Cassie said. [I] lived in eight different
countries working whatever odd jobs I had to do to keep going, and really took the time to
immerse myself in the way of life of those countries.

These experiences gave her an enormous understanding of worldwide culture and eco-
conscious hospitality venues, which only increased her fascination with travel and ecology.
Sustainable tourism and peace through travel became a passion for Cassieand a driving factor
for Expedition 196.

Although she obtained sufficient funding to begin, it took constant planning and communication
to maintain that funding throughout the Expedition. After seven months abroad, Cassie realized
her budget was disappearing quickly. She ended up returning home a few times to contact
investors and companies for sponsorship so that she could keep going.

I expected for the trip to be extremely difficult to manage financially, but I didnt realize just
how challenging that it would be, Cassie said. It took an immense amount of determination
and persistence and a whole lot of youve got nothing to lose in order to reach out to CEOs
over and over and over again until they said yes.

With two to five days to spend in each country, Cassie maximized her time to work on two of her
main projects: planting trees and collecting water samples to be tested for micro plastics. To
offset her own carbon footprint, Cassie planted trees all along her journey. The water samples
are for the non-profit organization Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, which will
research the samples to gather data about the cleanliness of waterways throughout the world.

For me, this expedition is a matter of maximizing every single moment that I have within a
given day to absorb as much as I can with the little time that I have on this earth, Cassie said.

Another one of her priorities was to spread the word about sustainable travel and peace through
tourism. Cassie addressed thousands of university students in 38 countries promoting eco-
friendly travel by focusing on criteria set forth by the Institute for Economics and Peace and the
International Institute for Peace Through Tourism (IIPT).

Together, we discuss how tourism can be a mediator between peace and conflict, and a way to
further friendship among nations as well as providing humanitarian assistance, said Cassie. For
instance, a sustainable hotel can partner with Pack for a Purpose so that guests can bring
educational supplies to distribute to local schools in need where theyre vacationing, [and that]
signifies cultural understanding and respect.

Still, Cassie asserts that the most significant difference we can make in the effort toward peace is
to open our hearts to people we encounter in our journeys throughout the world.

The only way we can truly create a more peaceful world is by respecting people of all races,
religions, genders, and cultural backgrounds andif were feeling up to itchoosing to
understand where they come from, Cassie said. While were all the same, by connecting with
people who come from different backgrounds and cultures were able to develop a deeper
understanding of overall humanity, thereby creating more of a unity among people of all
nations.

With what equates to more than a lifetime of travel experience, Cassie has truly demonstrated the
value and lasting impact of traveling versus simply going on vacation. By completing what she
set out to dowhat she describes as her lifes workCassie is an inspiration to all who share
her dream of seeing the world, showing millennials that they dont have to wait forever to fulfill
that dream.

It is my hope that through traveling alone as an American woman, Ive been able to respectfully
introduce [people] to the safety, kindness, and the similarities of 99% of people around the
world, said Cassie. In portraying this, Ive had to let go of all of my fears and trust in people,
trust in strangers, and trust in the unknown, and its proved to be a powerfully rewarding
experience.