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Polina Kamaev says she and her friends were about an hour into their flight to Puerto Vallarta Sunday when it turned back for Pearson airport.
The crew initially said there was a mechanical issue, she said, but when they arrived back in Toronto, they learned the issue was their destination, not the plane.
Canadian airline service to Puerto Vallarta had been temporarily suspended after violence erupted in several parts of the country. A notorious cartel leader had been killed as part of a Mexican government operation, and tourists and locals were told to shelter in place to stay safe.
The situation has since stabilized, and Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet and Porter Airlines all announced they were resuming flights Tuesday to and from Puerto Vallarta. Kamaev was back at Pearson that morning, but she said she and her friends had decided to take their vacation in the Bahamas instead.
“We just chose to play it safe,” she said. “Even though it seems like it’s clearing up, we don’t know if it will stay stable, and we don’t want to risk not being able to get home.”
Kamaev was one of several travellers headed south Tuesday as service to the popular western Mexican tourist resort city started up again. Many, like her, said they were steering clear of that part of the country — or Mexico altogether — despite the resumption.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told reporters Tuesday that “the situation in Mexico is becoming more stable.” But Global Affairs Canada is still advising people to exercise a high degree of caution if they are in Mexico and to avoid non-essential travel in several states, saying that the security situation “could deteriorate rapidly” across the country.
Brenna Hallock-Dobson said she was supposed to vacation an hour outside Puerto Vallarta, but changed her mind after seeing videos of violence in the streets Sunday. Even after flights resumed, she said she preferred to cancel her Mexican accommodations and fly standby to Costa Rica.
“If people still want to risk going down there, then that’s OK. But you never know. Things can change in a pinch,” she said.
‘Pretty determined I was going to go’
Donna McKay is one of those people. She said her brother and sister are already there and have told her “they feel good about it.”
“They’re not the kind to live on the edge … so I feel confident that [if] they say it’s good to come down, then it’s good to come down,” she said before her flight.
“I was there last year at this exact time — beautiful place, love it — and [I] was pretty determined I was going to go.”
Violence and shelter-in-place orders are rippling out across Mexico after the military killed a cartel leader commonly known as ‘El Mencho.’ Andrew Chang explains how Jalisco New Generation, arguably Mexico’s most dangerous cartel, has been building a criminal empire for several years.
Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
Shaun Russell of St. Thomas, Ont., said turmoil abroad had already forced him to change his vacation plans once this month, and he had nearly found himself in a similar bind.
Russell said he was headed to the Dominican Republic after rebooking a cancelled flight to Cuba, where airlines have wound down flights after the U.S. started blocking Venezuelan fuel from entering the island country. He was originally going to move his vacation to Puerto Vallarta, he said, but found it was slightly more expensive.
“We’re kind of glad that we didn’t go that route,” he said.
Multiple travellers told CBC News they rethought their trips to Mexico after hearing about the violence in the country this weekend, but ultimately kept their plans after their travel agents assured them they were staying far from the affected regions.
Shannon Manfredi was in a group of 30 headed to Cancun Tuesday morning, which included 16 children. She said tensions were high in their group chat Sunday.
“Our biggest concern was bringing kids with us when there’s an issue like this,” she said.
She said the group decided to go ahead with the trip, which is on the opposite coast from Puerto Vallarta, after receiving reassurances from their travel agent, resort and friends currently in Mexico.
Another parent in the group, Lauren Haines, said if their resort was closer to Puerto Vallarta, the group “would have been really considering canceling.”
“But we watched, and the airports are open today, and flights are going back in, so we felt OK this morning,” she said. “We’re going to continue to monitor while we’re there, and we’ll try to stay safe the whole time. We’re going to stay in the resort.”
