Granger mom and daughter stuck in Puerto Vallarta resort amid cartel violence
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mex. -- The violent fallout from Sunday's deadly shooting of one of Mexico's most powerful cartel leaders is leaving some American travelers stranded there.
The US has issued travel warnings for Americans against traveling to certain parts of Mexico and tourists are being told to shelter in place, particularly in Puerto Vallarta, which is in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
One Granger family is one of the many stuck in Puerto Vallarta on lockdown in their resort.
Lori Turpin and Madison Miller, the mother-daughter pair from Granger, escaped the Michiana winter last week to enjoy a tropical family vacation in Puerto Vallarta.
"We just wanted to have fun, relax, get away," says Turpin and Miller via Zoom.
That was until Sunday morning, when they realized something bad was happening.
"My mother-in-law and father-in-law are here, and they left to go to the grocery store, did not know anything was happening and security would not let anyone in or out, there was a building right on fire across from the grocery store," Turpin explains.
That would be only the beginning of smoke and fires they could see from their resort over the next 24 hours.
"You could just see the fires coming through, smoke everywhere," describes Turpin. "We go to the Malacon, which is the shopping area and stuff like that, we were there the day before, we went every night, and we saw pictures and thought 'We were just standing there, and it's burnt. We were just in that store, and it's burnt.'"
Right now, they're on lockdown at their resort along with other travelers trying to figure out their next steps.
"There's just been no communication," Miller says. "It's between everybody here at the resort, that's just like 'Hey, how's your flight? What's going on here? What have you heard?"
They were able to check into their Tuesday flight to Chicago, but they're still unsure if that actually means they'll get to leave.
"Most people are saying that they'll cancel them, I'm hoping not because I really want to go home," says Turpin.
They say that uncertainty is what's making them the most anxious about getting back home soon.
"One minute the airport is closed, one minute it's not, one minute they're going to come into the hotels and take people, they're going to cut our power, that's all they've been saying," says Turpin and Miller. "So, it gets you scared, gets you riled up, you know."
Even if they do have a plane Tuesday, they say they're unsure about even getting to the airport after seeing videos of taxis and buses in flames over the last day and hearing about essential roads being blocked off.