Canadians who recently travelled to Mexico are calling on local authorities to investigate after dozens of guests got sick at the all-inclusive beachside resort they stayed at.
Winnipeg wedding photographer Joel Boily and another guest estimated that around 200 Canadian guests staying at Sandos Playacar — a four-star resort in Playa del Carmen, in the country’s Caribbean coast — all suffered this past week from bouts of illness.
Boily said that includes almost everyone of the more than 30 guests who were there to attend the wedding he was photographing, as well as his young children, who spent several days experiencing severe vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration.
“We arrived on Wednesday and by Friday it was clear … it was more than just Montezuma’s revenge or whatever people call it,” Boily said. He believes the illness was due to food poisoning.
“My two-year-old — it was looking pretty grim,” he said. “We were really kind of freaking out in the worst of it, because we just didn’t know where to turn as far as like seeking medical attention.”
WATCH | Manitobans say they fell ill at all-inclusive resort in Mexico:
A vacation to a sunny destination is something most look forward to, but some Manitobans were instead counting down the days till they returned home from Mexico. Many of them became ill while staying at an all-inclusive resort in Playa del Carmen.
Boily said a local doctor who was called in to attend someone in his group told them he’d been to the resort several times and believed the water was contaminated.
He and other Canadians have made formal complaints with Mexico’s health authorities as part of a campaign calling for a full inspection of the facilities.
Resort points to seasonal illness
A representative for Sandos Hotel & Resorts — whose chain has locations in Spain and Mexico — said in an email to CBC News the cases may be related to a rise in gastrointestinal illnesses related to norovirus or seasonal flu in Canada and the U.S.
In replies to some comments left by guests on Google Reviews, the resort said the problem is present elsewhere in the local area, and isn’t exclusive to Sandos Playacar.
Victor Azevedo is uncle to the bride, and was supposed to officiate the wedding Boily was photographing.
“It destroyed the whole trip. My niece’s wedding was postponed,” he said. “She’s three months pregnant. Very dangerous.… Nobody helped us with anything.”
Kyler Searle, who arrived to Playa del Carmen from Saskatoon on Feb. 12 to attend a different wedding, said 52 out of 55 people in his party also got ill, including a one-year-old and a woman who was pregnant.
Searle said that ahead of the wedding ceremony, “everybody started just dropping like flies.”
“One groomsman, before walking down the aisle to go stand up front with the rest of the groomsmen, he fainted, needed oxygen, had to be taken back to his room, so couldn’t even make the wedding,” he said.
“Everybody sitting down there is just like deathly ill. So thank God it only went till like 9:00. It was such a battle.”
The men alleged the resort acted negligently in its handling of the situation, and was dismissive of their concerns after it was clear several people were sick.
“If they would have done … even the smallest effort to acknowledge that, ‘Yes, you’re not having the time that we hoped you would have, and here’s some solutions,’ I probably would have dropped it,” Boily said. “But they did nothing.”
Martha Scott, from London, Ont., said that even if an outbreak of illness were not contained to the resort alone, they should have taken precautions to contain it if they were aware of it.
“It was just a very unhygienic, poorly-maintained resort,” Scott said, adding that some areas of the hotel, including her tap and toilet water, smelled like sewage. The other guests who spoke to CBC News also questioned the cleanliness of the resort’s facilities, but none of them have yet received a concrete diagnosis for their illnesses.
Scott’s 10-year-old son, Joseph, was taken to a nearby private hospital where he had to stay overnight. The mother said both spent 20 hours there before being discharged so they could fly back home.
“Luckily my mom didn’t get it. My dad did,” she said. “They’re 74 years old and for a senior, this is very dangerous.… To have children and seniors exposed to something like that, it’s very irresponsible.”
CBC News has reached out to local government authorities in Mexico, as well as Global Affairs Canada for comment.
Outbreaks of this kind common, epidemiologist says
Dr. Tim Sly, an epidemiologist and professor emeritus at Toronto Metropolitan University, said it’s hard to diagnose a potentially foodborne illness without running tests or going through a list of what all of the guests ate.
“We’ve seen the outbreaks of almost all these foodborne diseases at resorts all over the world because when you get large numbers of people eating together … that’s when the mistakes happen,” Sly said.
Scott said she hopes no one else has to go through the same experience.
“It’s a health concern, but I also feel very sad for Canadians who spend all this time saving money for one week of vacation, and they’re going to go there and it’s going to be a nightmare,” she said.
“I wouldn’t wish it upon anybody.”
