Women Who Travel Podcast: More Solo Travel With Jessica Nabongo

20.02.2024 - 18:17 / cntraveler.com

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In 2019, friend of the podcast Jessica Nabongo became the first Black woman to visit every country in the world—and document it all along the way. We check back in with her to find out how and where she’s traveling in 2024, and revisit a conversation about solo travel from an earlier episode.

Lale Arikoglu: Hi there, I'm Lale Arikoglu with another episode of Women Who Travel, where I'm talking to one of my favorite guests, Jessica Nabongo, who in 2019 became the first Black woman to visit every country in the world and documented her travels. We'll be dipping in and out with flashbacks from our conversation two years ago. But her travel, style and goals remain the same, it's all part of her identity.

Jessica Nabongo: I am always in control of my life and what my life looks like and someone who really understands and values the human spirit and the diversity of experiences, and trying to remove value judgments of good and bad and understanding, the value is in the diversity.

LA: You know, I'm, I was trying to remember the last time we spoke and I think it was around September '22. And we were all, we were definitely all back traveling then, but it felt like we were kind of still finding our feet. I'd done a couple of trips and you were definitely back out there.

JN: Mm-hmm [laughs].

LA: So how has the last year and a half been? How, uh, how, how have your travels been?

JN: Oh, my goodness. Um, I feel like I've been doing so much [laughs] in the last year and a half. I did 95 flights, so I was all over the place last year. Um, I was in Brazil, the Maldives, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana. I ended the year in Uganda, so most recently I just came back. I spent one month in East Africa, spending time with family in Uganda and then resting and relaxing [laughs], and Zanzibar and then Kenya.

LA: You don't stop. So-

JN: [laughs].

LA: ... 95 flights-

JN: Mm-hmm.

LA: ... in one year. Like, I think that I rack up my mileage but that is on another level. And you've already visited every country in the world.

JN: Yeah.

LA: I mean, you are a professional traveler. You say- you know, you made history by becoming the first Black woman to visit every country in the world. We've talked about it so much on this podcast but you always have more stories.

JN: [laughs].

LA: And then you've kept going. What's your advice to travelers who want to do what you're doing and see the same value in connecting with people who live in the place they're visiting, but just feel a bit scared of it?

JN: Yeah. I think the easiest, the biggest tip is, find something that you guys can connect on. If you're a mother,