A simple title for this Blog post. It was a terrifying day in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco México. I’m going to share my experience on this fateful day. I can only speak for myself, what I went through and how I felt.

This Catholic Church serves a large community of Mexican locals and ex-pats from the USA and Canada. Though it seems like mosty wintering Canadians. There is a 9am mass in English every Sunday and holy days, too. During “season” (November – April), attendance almost fills the church every Sunday at 9am. Up until two years ago, the 9am mass was only celebrated in English during season. But the Pastor asked how many would be willing to attend during the off-season, and many of us raised our hands. So thus began the yearly 9am Sunday English mass. During the off-season, there are few of us, but our Pastor, Father Fernando, has not given up on us. We are truly grateful for that. There are not many churches with English services (maybe 1-2 that I know of in Centro, Downtown Puerto Vallarta). Though I am bilingual, I simply never learned my prayers in Spanish. I attended Catholic school from 1st grade through College and was a Sunday School teacher (Catechist) for almost 20 years. So I much prefer mass celebrated in English.

But let me get back to Sunday, February 22nd. We were in mass when the terror began. I hear from some that it started as early as 8:30am, but that was not my experience, at least from my home and the route to church. It was all “business as usual” quiet (perhaps, as they say, “the calm before the storm”). So, yes, it was a normal Sunday at mass. I can’t recall exactly when the commotion started. It might have been during the 1st or 2nd Reading. I do remember the Pastor was seated, so that’s what makes me think it was at this precise moment. There is a young man that helps at every Sunday mass. He is somewhat of a Sacristan, though dresses in normal clothing (doesn’t wear a robe). He assists Father with the mass at the altar, sounds the bells during the mass and other duties. Very nice young man that at times fills in for the Cantor. I’m so sorry I can’t recall his name.

He was not at the front of the Church this Sunday. Perhaps because we had a Deacon and a visiting Priest helping to celebrate mass. So, I see him running up the middle aisle of the church and approaching Father Fernando and speaking to him quietly and showing him his phone. Again, Father was seated at the front of the Church. I couldn’t imagine what it was. After the Gospel was read and Father approached the podium to say the Homily, he started out telling us that there was something going on outside in the street. I understood him to say on the street right in front of the Church. He said he was told there were tires slashed and police in the area. I don’t think he knew the magnitude of the problems happening, but he did say, if any of you want to leave, I give you special dispensation to leave mass now (as good Catholics, we don’t leave mass early and never before receiving the Eucharist). But since we didn’t really know what was going on, nobody left. Mass continued.

Again, towards the end of Communion, this young man again ran up the aisle and approached Father who was at the altar finishing up cleaning the Eucharist items and storing them. He stopped, as again this young man whispered to him and showed him his phone. A few minutes later, as Father was giving the final blessing to close out the Mass, he told us something to this affect. “I ask that you all go straight home, do not linger after mass. I don’t know exactly what is going on, but there seem to be some disturbances in the city and some fires. Please go straight home.” The whispering in the church was noticeable. Father and the other priest and Deacon left immediately down the aisle and did not stop to greet parishioners as they normally do right outside the church.

When at Mass, I always silence my phone, I did what the majority of people seemed to be doing as we were walking out of the church, I checked my phone. I had several missed calls and a few texts. My good friend Eddy was one of the many missed calls and texts. Before reading the texts I called him. He knew I attended Church early on Sunday and he was likely working. Why was he trying so hard to reach me? He answered immediately and said where are you?? When I told him I was leaving Church, he proceeded to tell me that there was chaos happening around the city. Honestly, I don’t recall exactly how he described it. As I was walking out of the Church, he was telling me cars were on fire in the street, streets were blocked and this was being reported as Cartel-instigated. He said he had watched videos showing where the burning cars were, and he told me there was a truck burning right now about one mile from my Church on the route I would normally take home.

At this point, people were still lingering outside of the church. Many people walk back to their apartments or hotels, I think less than a mile from us. But I didn’t understand why they weren’t just heading back.I saw one or two taxis approach the church. It isn’t usually a place where you can find a cab easily, and calling a taxi is no easy task either. I usually attend mass with a friend who is a volunteer at the cat shelter. She lives two blocks from church. We talked a bit. I told her what Eddy said (she also knows Eddy from Petco). She didn’t seem overly concerned, but her home was just around the corner, I don’t believe she had seen any of the videos or news at this point.

With Eddy’s guidance, I decided to take a back road home and got to my car. Father had mentioned that there were tires slashed, but in fact we later learned that tire spikes had been laid out on various streets throughout the city. I didn’t know this at the time I decided to drive home. Thankfully, I did not run into (or over) any streets with spikes on them (meant to blow out tires). As I drove down the quiet street from my Church, I approached the main boulevard in town. To get to the back street, I had to cross this boulevard and drive straight down this road that is one lane each way. It goes through a quiet neighborhood with homes, some businesses, a school and empty land. When I got to the main boulevard, it was eerily quiet, there were no cars driving in either direction. Later I learned that official notices had gone out around 9am telling people to stay home. Too late for me.

There were a few cars ahead of me on this road. nobody seemed concerned. It was then that I got a call from my housekeeper, Olga. She works at my apartment complex and cleans my apartment twice a month. She asked, where are you? I told her i was driving home and she said, no no. There are cars burning on the boulevard right in front of my apartment, it wasn’t safe. She said turn around and go to the local supermarket and stay there until it is safe to come out. She was working, as she does every Sunday and at that precise moment she was hiding in the pool bathroom with another coworker. I started to turn around on this narrow street, then decided against it. What was I going to do at the supermarket? No! I was going to drive home. I had no idea what was waiting for me on my street.

I continued down this road, and there were 2 cars ahead of me. One of them looked very beat up the other was a blue sedan-type car. As I was slowly making my way down this road, the 1st car made a turn and I came upon the blue car. I was approaching it, and was still a little away from it when I noticed the driver was looking into his trunk and talking to someone. That person started walking away, and the driver went to the front of the car and reached in on the driver’s side, bending down. As he straightened up, I noticed he had something in his hand that looked like a weapon. I didn’t stay to see what it was, I sped up and drove away quickly. Honestly, I think the man was just trying to safeguard himself and his car.

As I continued driving, there were 2 vehicles ahead of me. One was a slow moving pick up truck and the other a motorcycle. As we passed the large Puerto Vallarta Convention Center, I continued to notice the lack of vehicles on the road. As we neared the boulevard where I would make a turn and head straight to my apartment, I saw a completely burned up car, parked on the side of the road. It was not blocking the roadway. I had continued speaking to Olga and asked her not to hang up, so I wouldn’t feel so alone.

The motorcycle and I passed the truck to make the turn, as it was moving so slowly. I just wanted to get home! Again, it was stunning how lonely this usually very busy boulevard was. I only had to drive a block or less before I started seeing burned up cars right in the middle of the road, on both sides of the boulevard. There are two lanes on either side. I don’t recall exactly how many cars there were, and frankly at this point, I didn’t really understand what was going on! I then drove past a car IN FLAMES (!!) on the opposite side of the street. The motorcycle was still ahead of me, and I saw NO other cars on either side of the road. Then a car IN FLAMES on my side of the road. It was stopped in the left lane, so I just continued past. But as I kept driving I noticed the motorcycle ahead of me as I also saw a burning car, this time it was sideways on the road, blocking access. I slowed down and watched the motorcycle go up on the curb and drive past it. The curb in this area was slanted, so as I stopped a few feet from the burning car, I thought I can drive up that curb as well. And I did! I was only inches from the flames, but made it past safely.

I continued on the phone with Olga who was a real sweetheart keeping me calm. I was crying for most of my drive home. I was truly scared and didn’t know what to expect. As I neared my apartment complex, about two blocks away, I saw a pick up truck on the opposite side of the street. It was actually parked sideways blocking access to that side of the boulevard. There was a man standing beside the truck, and I certainly did not stop to say hello. I kept driving and my side of the road was clear. I could see my apartment one block away, I turned into the driveway and approached the security gate. The security guards greeted me and opened the gate. I asked how things were, and they said, we are good here. We are safe.

I quickly parked and walked to my apartment. I closed the curtains, did not turn on the TV and sat in my bedroom composing myself. I immediately called my sister in Los Angeles. Of course, she had NO idea that this was going on. She and I started looking up news stories on the internet, and we were both amazed. It was really troubling. But as many of us know now, so many stories were AI created. I have included various pictures that I have borrowed from the internet, many that illustrate exactly what I saw that day.

Once I was home, I had time to stop and reflect. I don’t recall at what time we learned that the Governor had issued a Shelter in Place order. We were under a Code Red in the State of Jalisco, which is the highest level of threat. Businesses were closed, people were ordered to stay home. I later learned from my housekeeper that two men running from the police ran through the property and escaped capture as they jumped over the back wall. What I will tell you is that I didn’t see any police or firetrucks that day. I didn’t hear any sirens that would lead me to believe that law enforcement was in the area. I couldn’t believe it. How was it possible that there was no police presence when so much violence was happening throughout the city??

I know that the events of that day scared a lot of tourists who wanted to leave. But the city was shut down that day and I think the next. Code Red wasn’t lifted officially until Wednesday morning. Schools were also closed until then. Many people did venture out on Monday for groceries and some businesses (mostly hotels and such) were open. I fortunately had enough groceries and water to make it through those 3 days without leaving my home. Sunday is usually my grocery shopping day after church.

My company closed on Monday and Tuesday. And when we reported to work on Wednesday, the internet was down and we were sent home. But back to those 3 days at home. I stayed in close contact with my sister and lots of friends here and abroad. I think if you were staying at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta, you likely felt safe and spent the days at the beach. Being a local, I did not have that experience. My condominium administrator kept in touch with us residents, sending messages regularly about continuing to Shelter in Place as well as government announcements.

Another thing that I later learned was that the vehicles that were set on fire where either parked cars or cars and buses that were emptied by threat and then set on fire. I saw videos of that, people forcibly removed from their vehicles and the vehicle lit on fire! One of my coworker’s dad’s car was threatened as he was driving home that morning from the shops. He was told to get out of the car, and he did, so quickly that he left his cell phone in the car. It was immediately set on fire. The purpose behind burning the cars was to prohibit entry and exit to/from the city. Buses were also emptied and immediately on fire.

Many, many convenience stores, called Oxxo, were burned. These are all over Mexico. It’s the equivalent of 7-11 in the USA. Several Farmacia Guadalajara were also burned down. These are drug stores much like CVS or Walgreen’s in the USA. I don’t know why these were targeted. Again, nobody was hurt. Employees were asked to leave immediately and the store set on fire. What was most unfortunate, is the number of fotos and videos that I saw of people looting these stores. Some burned down completely, while others had parts of the store salvaged, and people took advantage of the opportunity to shop for free. Not nice!!!

The only good news was that there were no civilians injured or killed. A local penitentiary was threatened, one guard was killed and several (I think 20+) inmates escaped. That surely was a coordinated and organized effort by the Cartel. This whole incident on February 22nd, by the way, was driven by the capture and eventual death of the head of the Jalisco Cartel. (Jalisco is the State where Puerto Vallarta is).

So there you have it. For me, a very frightening event. Made me really think about being alone here in Puerto Vallarta, without family. I do have many friends back in Bucerias in Nayarit. Where I lived up until last summer. It’s about 30 minutes from where I live now. They did not experience quite the same violent events fortunately. And my local friends in PV? Well, they have their own families, don’t they? For those first couple of days, I wasn’t going to leave my home. I did venture out Tuesday afternoon with a neighbor that I befriended. It’s a nice young family. She’s a teacher in the local American School. She and her work at home husband have two young children. We decided to go grocery shopping together. Which is when we both got a good look at what our city looked like.

Finally, below are some pictures that round out my experience. I’m glad it is behind us, but I must admit that I still feel like I’ve got one eye looking behind me. There is some trepidation… what if this happens again??

One has to move forward, leave behind bad experiences, fear and sadness. I’ve done that, I think. I’m writing this story a little over 45 days after February 22nd. So there’s less emotion I’m feeling about what happened. But I have made some decisions about my future. That will have to wait until my next Blog. See you then!!