Carmichael teacher stranded amid unrest in Puerto Vallarta after week in ‘paradise’
Elise Huggins of Carmichael sat on a Puerto Vallarta balcony Sunday to enjoy a final morning coffee after what had been an idyllic week in Mexico with family.
“I noticed fires,” Huggins said in a phone interview Monday from Puerto Vallarta. “And I thought, ‘What is going on? And why are there no sirens? Nobody’s called this in — how does this work in Mexico?’”
Huggins, 60 and the others with her were witnessing unrest that followed the killing Sunday of cartel leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes in Tapalpa, about 170 miles in-land from Puerto Vallarta. People burned cars. There was looting. And the military came in.
Huggins, who teaches second grade in the San Juan Unified School District, was supposed to fly home Sunday, after a week off and get back to class Monday. Instead, her students have a substitute, and Huggins and the others on her trip are hunkering down.
What’s happening in Puerto Vallarta
On the seventh-floor balcony, Huggins and the others on their trip were discussing what their week had been like. She said that Puerto Vallarta draws snowbirds from places like the U.S. and Canada.
“We were commenting on how clear blue it’s been all week, perfect weather,” Huggins said. “And then I went, ‘Wait, is this fog rolling in?’ And realized it was smoke.”
From her vantage point, Huggins and the others with her got a view of what was occurring. Huggins said she could see fires being set, with multiple big black plumes of smoke. In time, she realized what was being set alight.
“What I thought was originally buildings on fire was vehicles on the roads behind them and the smoke being very black and lots of particulates from cars,” she said.
Through the course of the day, Huggins said she got the sense that those involved in the disturbance didn’t wish to kill people, though she got various signs all was not well. She heard gunshots. The military arrived. And her group learned of a man whose van was stolen at gunpoint and burned.
After the situation had settled somewhat, Huggins’ daughter Katherine Huggins went for a walk with her boyfriend and his mother. They had been feeling tense and antsy and wanting to know more about what had been occurring.
“We went on the main road and we saw two cars that had been absolutely torched and got a little uneasy being on the main road, even though there were… enough people kind of walking around doing the same thing,” Katherine Huggins said.
She also saw a Mexican convenience store that had been burned and was being raided and a line that stretched four blocks for people to enter a different store.
“People were saying that they had been standing in line for like 2, 2-1/2 hours, waiting to be let in because the store owners were regulating how many people could be in and how much they could be buying,” Katherine Huggins said.
Her group went to bed early Sunday night, with Katherine Huggins saying she woke up twice in the night due to concern over general unrest and looting.
Getting out of Mexico
After learning that they would be unable to depart Puerto Vallarta as planned on Sunday, Katherine Huggins and the others in their group moved into a different room at their resort. She said there had been some difficulty with arranging additional lodging, since everyone was trying to extend their stays.
On Monday, she was getting ready to change rooms again and planning to fly out in two days.
“I was able to finagle a really janky route for us to at least get back to the U.S. on Wednesday, which was the earliest I could manage,” Katherine Huggins said. “And I’m very happy about that, because our airlines wanted to rebook us for Saturday.”
She added that her boyfriend’s mom was still working to get her flight moved from Thursday.
Katherine Huggins said that she and her boyfriend had been excited to show their mothers Puerto Vallarta. Katherine Huggins, who grew up in the Sacramento area and now lives in New Jersey, said this was the third straight year that she and her boyfriend had come to Puerto Vallarta.
“We love it,” Katherine Huggins said. “I think it’s one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been.”
She said she still loved Puerto Vallarta but that she now had two perspectives on it. “I still probably will come back, not immediately, but kind of after I can see how and if the city’s changed,” Katherine Huggins said.
As for Elise Huggins, this was her first time vacationing in Mexico, though she said she’d previously visited border towns like Nogales and Tijuana. She was keeping her “eyes and ears open,” she said, and monitoring the situation in Puerto Vallarta.
Prior to the unrest unfolding, her activities for the week had included cooking classes and theater. Asked if she would still have happy memories from the trip, she noted its dichotomy.
“We spent the week watching humpback whales breaching and eating the most amazing red snapper on the beach,” Elise Huggins said. “And then blowing up vehicles and smoke and just the smell of plastics in the air and people having to shelter. How does a place that is paradise get that? It’s such a stark contrast.”
