It had been what Janine Pierson described as a perfect family vacation.
Pierson, her husband Steve and two children Maya and Ollie had arrived in Mexico on Feb. 14. Her kids are 19 and 21, just on the edge of moving on with their lives, so for Pierson the trip was meant to be treasured time together.
And it was, right up until the day they were to fly back to Canada.
The family was due to leave Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 22. That morning, Pierson and her son set out from a local hotel in search of breakfast when they noticed billowing smoke they mistook for a forest fire. No shops were open and the streets were quiet.
The pair saw a woman closing her coffee shop and approached, unaware what was happening.
“I asked her if we could get some coffee and she told us that the cartel was in town and they were starting fires and that we needed to get into our hotel room immediately,” said Pierson, who spoke to the Nelson Star from Puerto Vallarta.
The Nelson, B.C., family was among the over 26,000 Canadians in Mexico on Feb. 22 when the Mexican government carried out a military operation that killed Nemesio Oseguera, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel known for its international drug trafficking and attacks on state officials.
Oseguera was killed in Tapalpa in the Mexican state of Jalisco, which is also where Puerto Vallarta is located. Canadian flights in and out of Puerto Vallarta were cancelled and visitors were told to take shelter.
Pierson and her son returned to the hotel. Outside their window from the seventh floor, the family watched a truck burst into flames. Soon other fires started appearing elsewhere around their building.
On the ground floor of the hotel was a convenience store. The family heard glass breaking, and a man on a rooftop across from them said two masked men on motorcycles had just lit the store on fire. Locals arrived with garden hoses and buckets to put out the fire, but the family watched as more stores were looted.
The Piersons stayed put until the early evening. They had eaten nothing to that point, but in the lobby found food had been dropped off and were also grateful to the hotel staff who stayed behind.
Police and military also began to arrive, and people returned to the streets. Pierson said her family waited in a line at a store for about two hours to get some supplies.
“I think a lot of people just needed water and food,” said Pierson. “It was feeling safe and no one had been hearing motorcycles. The fires have been going on pretty much all day. Every time we thought that maybe there weren’t going to be new ones, we’d see a new one.”
The next day, the Piersons managed to find accommodations outside the city. As they drove in a taxi through Puerto Vallarta, they passed vehicles still on fire.
“It was a real quiet ride and and it’s just been heartbreaking. I feel so terrible for people here.”
Canadian airlines resumed service to Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 24. The family was scheduled to fly home Feb. 25.