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Jack Wheeler proudly shows the passport issued in the 1960s, among all the passports he has had throughout his life. He has brought the documents to prove that he has already visited every country in the world.
“About 20 years ago, my wife asked me how many countries I had been to. It turned out I had been to 140. And she said, ‘Why not visit them all?’, explains Wheeler, an American who lives in Portugal with his wife.
“I turned it into a game. Whenever I went somewhere, I would also visit the most interesting countries nearby,” he tells Euronews. Until, in 2014, on a trip to São Tomé and Príncipe, he completed the list.
Wendy Arbeit achieved the same feat last year, when she managed to get into North Korea. The German, who also holds US citizenship, was part of the first group to enter the country since the start of the pandemic.
“It was incredible. Very safe, very clean,” she says. “Also very special because I was the first person to enter the country after Covid, the first non-Russian tourist.”
Wendy and Jack met up on Saturday in the Azeitão area, in Portugal, for a Most Traveled People (MTP) gathering, which brought together around 200 people.
From Guinness to MTP
This story began in 2005. At the time, Charles Veley wanted to be recognised as the most travelled person, but the Guinness World Records book had stopped awarding that title.
So he created Most Traveled People, which he describes as a community of travellers. The MPT platform (source in Portuguese), which has more than 50,000 registered users, allows them to log the trips they have already made and see where they stand in the ranking of the most travelled.
“We organise tours and we do rankings. The rankings help to motivate people, because they have a list to complete. That’s what happened to me,” he explains.
Those who can prove they have been to the 193 countries recognised by the UN become grandmasters. At this gathering in Azeitão, 103 of these grandmasters were present.
But Veley, a Californian who spent 350 days away from home last year, insists that this community is not about collecting countries. Not least because it also encourages members to visit lesser-known places.
“When people go to a country and only visit the capital, that is not experiencing the country,” he adds.
Like Veley, MPT enthusiasts are Americans, but also Europeans (mainly Germans and Portuguese). The group also includes a growing number of people from Asia. The community’s next big gathering will take place in the city of Chengdu, in China, next year.
Arrests, wars and other stories
But for its members, MPT seems to be above all a chance to socialise and swap experiences. Here, everyone appears to have a story to tell. Some are rather dramatic and involve less safe countries.
Nicolas Pasquali picks the Central African Republic as the most dangerous country he has been to. But despite “a civil war and areas controlled by the Wagner Group”, the Argentinian managed to cross the country by motorbike and even received help from locals.
However, it was in Iraq and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that he had his biggest fright.
“I ended up in prison in Iraq: I was accused of spying for Italy,” Nicolas says. The same thing happened again in the DRC, after a demand for a bribe to obtain a visa. He has since returned to the country without any problems.
David Langan, an Irishman who managed to visit every country in 2022, goes to a post office in each country. He even managed to do so in Somalia, the most dangerous country he visited.
“I would say Mogadishu, in Somalia, is regarded as dangerous. But, as with anything, you have to be security-conscious and careful. I felt safe when I was there,” Langan tells Euronews.
An expensive hobby
Within this community they prefer to be called travellers rather than tourists. It is a pastime that requires financial means.
But some are quick to point out that it has never been so cheap to travel.
“Air fares have come down and there are many ways of getting to places. It is a matter of staying in cheaper hotels or in people’s homes,” says David Langan.
That is Nicolas Pasquali’s strategy: saving on accommodation and transport.
“You do need money, yes. But with 150,000 euros I managed to visit every country,” he explains.
For Jack Wheeler, the secret seems to be to combine work and travel. For 50 years this American has run a company that organises expeditions and now, at 82, he is still travelling.
“I turned it into my business. People pay me to take them to extraordinary places around the world. That is how I do it,” he concludes.
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