A YEAR OF HORRORS AT MEXICO RESORTS Saved by a mother’s intuition
Upscale family vacations descend into nightmarish illnesses and blackouts
The majority of the resorts contacted said they were aware of the incidents, investigated them but could find no evidence of tainted alcohol or foul play. The Mexican government shut down two black-market tequila distilleries and confiscated nearly 20,000 gallons of illegal tequila. Tests found more than 235 gallons of that supply contained dangerous levels of methanol.
Ayear after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel brought to light a suspicious drowning and other troubling accounts from tourists vacationing at upscale all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, the stories continue to surface. ❚ In one case, a 51-year-old mother and her two adult daughters blacked out simultaneously after drinking shots of tequila. In another, a couple in their mid-60s vomited and blacked out after two margaritas. And in another, a woman from Los Angeles – who had not been drinking – was taken to jail for trying to help a woman who was blacking out in the pool.
Since early July 2017, the Journal Sentinel has heard from more than 170 travelers describing injuries, illnesses and deaths after drinking alcohol at resorts and in tourist towns in Mexico.
Travelers reported blacking out after drinking small or moderate amounts of alcohol and regaining consciousness to find they were robbed, assaulted, hospitalized or taken to jail.
Many reported encountering unhelpful or hostile resort workers, hospital staffers and police officers. Many said the U.S. Department of State offered little to no help.
When tourists tried to warn others through the popular website TripAdvisor, the Journal Sentinel found the site had deleted dozens of their posts. TripAdvisor apologized and promised to better train the company’s moderators. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said in February that it was looking into TripAdvisor’s business practices.
The Journal Sentinel’s investigation exposed how travel agencies failed to warn tourists about troubles in Mexico when they booked their trips.
After publication of the Journal Sentinel stories, the State Department began tracking alcohol-related incidents in Mexico. As of June, it said it had received 22 reports.
The majority of the resorts reached by the Journal Sentinel said they were aware of the incidents and investigated them but could find no evidence of tainted alcohol or foul play.
The Mexican government shut down two black-market tequila distilleries in February and confiscated nearly 20,000 gallons of illegal tequila. Tests found more than 235 gallons of that supply contained dangerous levels of methanol, toxic even in small quantities.
In January, Mexican authorities in Quintana Roo, the home state of Cancun and the Riviera Maya, began offering free interpreters and translating services for tourists needing to file police reports.
“We have seen progress from the Government of Mexico, and increased coordination and willingness to address this issue,” a spokeswoman for the State Department told the Journal Sentinel in an email. “We are exploring other ways to assist U.S. citizens in Mexico and continue to raise our concerns with the Mexican authorities.”
Among the recent cases reported to the Journal Sentinel:
Jennifer Drinkwine and her husband, of Castle Pines, Colorado, took their three kids to Mexico in May 2017. Their 19-year-old son, Bobby, had a beer with the family at dinner.
They all went to a show on the property of the Iberostar Paraiso del Mar where they were staying. Bobby did not order any alcoholic drinks and was just enjoying the show. The rest of the family headed back to their room.
Bobby wanted to stay and listen to the music a little longer. Back in their room about 45 minutes later, Drinkwine got a strange feeling. She called Bobby. When he answered, she knew something was wrong. She barely recognized his voice.
She raced back to the club and found him staggering in the corner of the bar, completely incoherent. An empty shot glass was on a nearby table. She called for a golf cart to shuttle them back to the room. She had to hold Bobby tightly to keep him from falling off the cart. He was turning white, and his eyes were rolling back in his head.
Drinkwine insisted the resort workers call for an ambulance. When medics arrived, they refused to treat Bobby or even help him on the stretcher. Drinkwine and her husband lifted him themselves, and Jennifer jumped into the ambulance to ride with him to the hospital.
Doctors said he was intoxicated. Medical records reviewed by the Journal Sentinel show his blood-alcohol content was 0.02, well below any scientific definition of intoxication.
He stayed at the hospital about eight hours and slowly recovered.
“If I had not gone back to check on him, he would have died,” Drinkwine said. She said Bobby insisted he had one shot, though at the time, Jennifer wasn’t sure she believed him. It didn’t make sense – until months later when she saw reports from others describing similar experiences.
“They’re trying to make it seem like these kids are reckless in their behavior,” she said. “They’re not.”
Different from a hangover
It was July 2017, and Jennifer Santel hadn’t heard of any problems with people blacking out after drinking small amounts of alcohol at resorts in Mexico. She and her husband and their adult children, from Bartelso, Illinois, went to Iberostar Paraiso Maya with another couple and their kids.
The parents drank three to four drinks at the swim-up bar during the afternoon and began acting crazy and out of character. Their kids took them up to their rooms, where all four parents vomited and blacked out. Within three to five hours, all woke up and wondered what had happened.
“When I woke up at 7 p.m., it was an instant awakening,” Santel said. “It was like when I woke up from anesthesia after my gallbladder surgery. It’s different than waking up from sleep or with a hangover. I suspected then that we were drugged.”
Back in the USA, Santel contacted her travel agent to inform the company of what had happened. The travel agent contacted Apple Vacations, and a representative from Apple notified Iberostar, which apologized for the couples’ stress and denied any deliberate adulteration of the drinks.
“We can assure you that we do everything in our power to keep our guests safe the whole time during their vacation,” a representative wrote in an email Sept. 20 to the Apple Vacations official.
Drink almost caused divorce
On the second day of their stay at the Now Sapphire in Cancun in April 2016, Kayleigh Smith and her husband were having drinks with other family members gathered for a wedding.
The bartender brought Kayleigh, 30, from Ontario, Canada, a special pineapple drink she didn’t order. Everybody joked that the bartender must have thought she was pretty.
After no more than three drinks, Smith began acting out of control, jumping on the back of her husband’s aunt and doing other out-of-character things.
She had to be carried back to her room, where she lost control of her bodily functions and blacked out. She regained consciousness about 24 hours later, confused and with no recollection of anything that had happened.
Smith said her husband was very angry, and it caused a serious rift in their relationship. “We almost split up over this,” she said.