2 Cuban sisters’ 4,200-mile journey to the US and a new life

The Rolo González sisters walked out of Nicaragua’s main airport and peered out onto a sea of young men.

The Central American “coyotes” squinted back, trying to find the people they would smuggle to the United States. These were the first steps that 19-year-old Merlyn and 24-year-old Melanie took outside of Cuba. Toting two small backpacks and Melanie’s 1-year-old daughter, the women realized just how alone they were.

Their odyssey of more than 4,200 miles (6,000 kilometers) would lead the medical students to question their past lives, race unknowingly against a ticking legal clock and leave them teetering on the edge of death as they tumbled down a cliff.