The Time I Almost Died Going to Baracoa, Cuba
How a harrowing journey on Cuba’s most dangerous road sparked my road trip anxiety
I’m taking you back to the glorious summer of 2006. I stayed at a friend's house for two weeks, just 2 hours away from home. She was — and still is — one of my very good friends from the national art school who lived in Camagüey. Every summer, I would stay there and be another daughter to her parents. We would barely sleep, just having fun and gossiping about everything and everyone.
I was getting everything ready to leave for my city when I received a call from my boyfriend at the time, saying he was going to pick me up so I didn’t have to endure the long and unpredictable wait at the station for a bus. For those who read my story about the film Love Exposure, this is the guy I kissed to make my dad upset, not knowing I was going to fall crazily for him.
During our ride home, he invited me on a trip to visit Baracoa and Santiago de Cuba. A group of international medical students, including him, were planning this because they had all graduated that month and were leaving the island.
My initial excitement was clouded by doubt, mainly because I didn’t know if my mom was going to just let me go on something like this. She trusted me, though. I was already…
