Traveling to the Yucatan? Think Twice.

Caption: Matt Quinn, Sarah's husband; Sarah [Conzemius] Quinn; Jesse Conzemius; Rachel Hileman, Jesse's girlfriend before/after Matt's and Sarah's wedding 9/30/16 at the Johnson County Court House

My daughter and her husband are contemplating a trip to the Yucatan. They haven’t read “Midnight in Mexico,” a book by Alfredo Corchado, a Mexican investigative reporter, which chilled me to the bone. This book was written by a Mexican man who loves his country but was forced to leave it due to death threats, serious death threats. And it wasn’t enough for him to move to the United States. He had to move to the northeastern U.S. If you like thrillers with pathos, I recommend this book.

Sarah, my daughter, laughed at my concerns about her possibly traveling to the Yucatan. I wanted her to check with the State Department as to the advisability of traveling to Mexico. She laughed when I was worried about her spring break vacation with friends in South Padre Island when she was in college. One of her guides teasingly played fast and loose with her safety on the Gulf, but she survived. The worst thing that happened to her was an overreaction to Benadryl that she took for sunburn. She fell and hit her head hard on the corner of a dresser.

Of course, my worst fears were realized in the case of the Yucatan peninsula and how safe it is in the resorts. Within the past week, a mass shooting with four or five deaths and multiple injuries occurred in Playa del Carmen. Different news accounts portray the shooting as a bar fight or as a terrorist like attack. The difference in news accounts between USA Today and the Guardian reassures me not at all. I want to know what the hell went down and why. The news stories dried up quickly, which must be because we mustn’t discourage tourism to the area, must we?

I’ve decided the only thing that will help me cope will be if Sarah’s husband, Matt, who is 6’3” tall and 220 pounds of solid muscle, will promise to pick up Sarah, 5’3 ½” tall and petite, and carry her like a football in the stampede to the exit if any shooting starts at their resort if they go to the Yucatan. Tragically, one woman was trampled to death at the Playa del Carmen resort in the stampede toward the exit. Sarah’s strong but little, and I wouldn’t want her to be trampled in a panic toward an exit.

I hate it when my worst fears come true. I wish I hadn’t read “Midnight in Mexico,” although it’s a fascinating and eye-opening book.

I traveled to the Yucatan in 1969. That was nearly 50 years ago. If they had drug cartels in Mexico then, I certainly wasn’t aware of them, because I spent the entire summer in Mexico City and all along the east coast of Mexico. I was safe or felt safe the whole time. The only bizarre thing that happened to me was that a little boy made sexual advances toward me when I was 20 years old. He wasn’t even close to being old enough for me. I was shocked, but who knows what children see in a one-room hut?