The State Department’s message to Americans in Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara remained to shelter in place late Monday.
The guidance came more than 24 hours after the killing of Jalisco New Generation Cartel’s leader unleashed a wave of violence.
“You’ll search it, and then you’ll find one flight, you’ll go book it, and then it’ll be like, sorry, something happened with our server,” said Cherry Abdou.
Abdou and her husband, Grant Ellis, said a weekend in Sayulita celebrating their friends’ wedding was extended indefinitely after yesterday’s planned departure from Puerto Vallarta was canceled.
They say curfews and long lines have made getting food difficult.
“We were able to sneak out later in the day and just find some beach club that was open, and we waited like three hours for food and then came back,” she said.
“I woke up, and there was smoke, and I heard some loud noises that sounded like an explosion,” said Brian Daniel, recounting Sunday morning.
Daniel is stranded in Puerto Vallarta, where he said burned-out cars still litter the street.
Following fires that filled the popular beach resort with smoke, flights have both there and in Guadalajara have resumed, though American carriers have yet to return.
“The next available flight that had seats available was Sunday March, 1,” said Daniel.
Tourists say they have no choice but to scour the web for information and await guidance from the government.
“We want to be as safe as possible because we are with people who have children, with somebody who’s pregnant, so we don’t want to put anyone in danger by being too cavalier. So it’s been hard to find intel and hard to know what the right thing to do is,” said Abdou.