Nic

Here is our story of what happened to my husband and I in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico January 5th 2016. We were traveling with a large group as this was an incentive trip for top sales at my husbands company he worked for at the time. Each year we did these trips, this was our second year going to a Mexican destination. My husbands company had done 3 of these trips and each time they worked with a travel agent through Apple (i believe) and stayed at Riu resorts. The prior year we went to Cancun and stayed at the newest of the Riu's at that time The Riu Palace Peninsula. As the property was newer, the place was like something out of a dream, beautiful, clean, and a very warm and welcoming staff. Our group spent each day at the swim up bar and there were zero incidences, sickness or crimes within our group and nothing else we had heard of during our stay. It was an amazing trip! When we then found out we were going to Cabo we were pumped and anticipating another fantastic vacation. We couldn't have been more wrong. We arrived to our hotel in Cabo, the Riu Sante Fe. I remember walking in the lobby looking around and all of us thinking we were being punked. The place was nothing like the Riu we had been at the year prior and for those with us that went on the first ever trip and stayed in a Riu in Jamaica they were in shock. It was dirty looking, the staff was rude and wanted nothing to do with us and shuttled us immediately to our travel agents rep, to begin our informational meeting. When our group was given our rooms we were all scattered around the resort which typically we go in a group and stay in similar areas. The rooms for each of us were to be king size bed suites with ocean views. My husband and I found our room, walked in and were speechless. It was horrible. There were two double or full sized beds not one queen. The room was dingy and stale and nothing like what we expected vs our last trip. Our Ocean view was an alley way with a sand hill and if you stuck your neck out and looked to the left you could see a part of the Ocean. Almost all of us had the wrong type of rooms, or issues with their rooms and we all met back down in the lobby. The staff was annoyed by us and repeatedly refused to move us into king suites claiming they were all taken and we would just have to deal with what we had. The only solution they offered us was that they would come in and push our beds together and put a styrofoam pad on top so our beds would stay pushed together. Also, they were adamant that we did indeed have ocean views as your could see the ocean from our balcony. It took them forever to come and fix our beds. My husband is 6'7" and his feet hung off the bed all week and it was horribly uncomfortable. We left our vacation with back problems and much, much more we didn't want to take home as souvenirs. We arrived late on the 4th and all decided to meet down at one of the 3 or 4 swim up bars on the property as soon as it opened the next day. We stopped and had breakfast which was so bad i could only manage a bagel and fruit as everything else just looked and tasted bad. Now I do have to mention that as we are from Wisconsin we are seasoned drinkers who know how to last through day drinking in the sun. I will also add that we both grew up on the water, have much experience with drinking out on the water and in the sun and how to do it without getting sick and or getting hurt. On that note we brought our own mugs with covers, the big thermal ones and had decided to stick with beer. I did notice at some point during the day my cover went missing for my cup. We spent the day with our group, heading back to our rooms a couple times to get more waters or grab a snack etc. We remember everything that happened that day until we both blacked out within about a minute or two of each other. We were with a large group as I said and as the group that we are with are all in sales, a very social group at that. My husband and I and our group encountered many different people that day chatting up with some more than others. I try to think if anyone stuck out to me as creepy or may have had cruel intentions etc but I just cant pinpoint one person. I had no concept of time that day but as we were with others they filled us in on our time line. I remember all of a sudden feeling weird and thought I should go sit down on the chair with our towels on it, and get out of the water. As I walked to the pool stairs, my legs just stopped working and I started swimming. I made it to the pool stairs, I grabbed the railing and I pulled myself up the railing with my arms somehow making it out of the pool. I remember not just stumbling to my chair but completely weaving, I guess you would call it and arriving at my chair. I remember seeing the tree in front of me and watching it turn black. That is the last thing I remember until much later in the night. When I blacked out I fell forward. Our chairs were along a line of bushes with Palm trees every four feet or so. My face hit the palm tree and I fell into the bushes out cold. My husband told me that right before I went to leave the pool that I got really mad at him and was starting to yell and visibly agitated. He was confused as we were laughing having fun and then I just switched. He thought maybe I was joking with him as nothing had happened to warrant my change in mood. He watched me closely as I left the pool. He saw me have trouble getting out of the pool and then saw me fall. My husband and a few of our friends rushed out of the water to come help me. When my husband climbed out of the pool, he too went down. Two of the biggest guys with us had to drape an arm around each of them and drag him to our room as his legs wouldn't work. I had someone else in our group holding me up and helping back. At the time we were being taken back to our room, I was informed that both my husband and I were saying things out of character and everyone assumed we were just loaded and didn't think twice. There were many comments from our friends that we both were totally with it and having fun joking around with everyone and then we both just went down. After getting us to our room, another couple who happened to be the only ones with a room by ours stayed with us in the room to make sure we both were in bed and then they left. We were both in our swimsuits in bed passed out and he shut and made sure the door was locked behind him. What happened after he left us there is something we will never really know, we can guess about forever but here is what we do know. My husband and I were alone in our room for about 2 hours. I recall being in and out of a state of conscieness where it was almost like a dream but I knew it wasn't. I couldn't see anything just black but I heard people talking even laughing at one point, definitely a woman's voice what seemed to be right next to me. I remember thinking, is that in our room or outside? After that, (around the 2 hour mark) the next thing either of us remembers is I am standing over him next to his side of the bed, he was laying face down naked..above the covers. I have no idea if I had clothes on or not but he was naked. I was filled with rage and he woke to me screaming at him like a crazy person accusing him of "f***ing" the Canadian chick. He got up and was staring at me with a confused look on his face and I proceeded to scream horrible things at him over and over screaming about the Canadian woman or women. I was violent and proceeded to flip a glass top table in our room which shattered and sliced my husbands legs and feet up. Now, again, I have had my times where I have been over-served and have done stupid things but one thing anyone who knows me will tell you I have never and will never be a mean drunk. I have never started a fight due to drinking or otherwise. I have definitely NEVER flipped a table or have done damage to property or a person. After I flipped the table, I ran out of our room and have no idea where I went or how long I was gone. My husband was still naked when I ran out of the room and he threw clothes on and came after me but I was no where to be found. He ran across the hotel to find our group in the dining hall eating dinner. I had been screaming that I wanted a divorce and wanted to get home to my children that I was leaving Cabo. (Another side note, my husband and I are happy. We don't threaten each other with divorce, ever). My husband remembers everything that happened after he woke to me screaming. He and our friends searched for me and one of our friends took my husband back to our room to see if I had made it back. My husband was disoriented, not drunk, not hungover just in this fog and scared shitless as I was missing and out of my mind. Here is what I remember. I was curled up in a corridor with every few feet or so there was a cutaway of the wall and i was sitting hugging my knees tucked into one of these. I remember a security guard being right there asking if I needed help. The next thing I remember I was back in our room, and my husband and our friend Ryan walked through the door. Ryan approached me very carefully while my husband who looked like he had seen a ghost waited by the door. Ryan was talking softly and approaching me cautiously, how you doing? Everything okay, we are all really worried about you. You gave us quite a scare. You should really stay here tonight and see how you feel in the morning, don't try to leave Cabo tonight. My husband was sobbing. After Ryan was done saying these things I responded with something like “What are you talking about?? Leaving Cabo, are you nuts?” Also, I was so confused as to why everyone was looking for me when I was clearly in our room. I remember them walking through the door but I don't remember anything else until we woke the next morning. I got up first and saw our room, it was trashed, glass and blood everywhere… I was so confused and scared and I was sore and hurting. I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror and saw my face. I had a black eye, cuts under my eye, and all over my body. My right ear was full of crusted blood and my earrings were missing from that side as well. I felt disoriented and like I was in a fog or a daze…. My husband woke up and remembered everything after I woke him by standing over him screaming. He filled me in on the table flipping, what I saying and doing and that I ran off in the night by myself and scared the living shit out of him. He, unlike me remembers some things vaguely of our walk back to the room, getting to our room but no after our friends left us in the room until he woke later to me. memory from when he went down at the pool until I woke him in our room. He lost 3 ish hours and I lost 5 or 6. We sat in our room ashamed scared to tell the hotel about our table, again we were on a company trip. We had housekeeping come and told them that my husband tripped over the table in the night as he had bad cuts on his legs and feet. We made our way down to breakfast to find our friends and find out what the hell happened. We first found our closest friends and they proceeded to tell us about what happened at the pool and about taking us to our room. I was told by them that I owed another couple on our trip an apology right away esp. the wife who from what I later found out was ready to beat me up that night.. WHAT? What did I do or say? Well, on that walk from the pool to our hotel room where both myself and my husband were literally being dragged by our group I, was screaming that I was going to “f**** her husband tonight and was yelling it loudly , in front of my husband too but he had no idea what was going on he was half passed out. I have no idea why I would have said that, I don't know them like I know many others on that trip , he was newer to the company and not one bit attractive to me AT ALL. Now, on top of everything else, I have to go apologize to this woman who I didn't know well and thought this was me and my typical behavior and wanted to punch me. I was so confused by all of it. Also, after talking to our group we kept hearing this “we don’t know what happened to you two, one minute you were having fun, carrying on conversation and all of a sudden you both just went down”.The instant I woke up I just knew something horrible had happened to us in our room but no way to prove it. What was I going to do? EVERYONE thought we had just drank too much and I believed it at that time but was so confused. We drank beer, we have pictures of us in the pool moments before we both passed out and we both look normal, not even in a drunk state where either of us would be close to passing out. Everyone including my husband was like honey, you're day drinking in the Cabo sun and it kicked your butt. The thing is, I am no rookie to day drinking in sun and water and know with beer I'm fine. We drank water bottles throughout the day to stay hydrated… it just didn’t make sense. My husband and I left the resort that day to be alone, we were hurt, confused, tired, mortified. We took a water taxi into town and shopped and were completely melancholy and almost lifeless all day. I did not want to go back to that resort. When we did get back our room was cleaned, new table, it looked as if nothing had occurred at all. What I thought was strange was I broke an expensive piece of furniture and they never flinched or said we would be charged for it, it seemed very routine for them and I just thought that was weird, also with all the blood in our room no one asked if we were okay, checked with us, it was just weird. The earrings I had in that day were my diamond stud earrings from my husband, small little diamond studs, nothing showy or noticeable, but we decided to go to the tree and bushes where I fell to see if the earring was there. When we got there you could tell, barely, but you could tell where I had landed in the bushes. I got down on my hands and knees and looked for the diamond under the bushes. We did not find and diamond but at the same time my husband and I saw that within and inch ONE INCH of where I fell, there was a 2 foot tall thin metal pipe with a sharp top to it (most likely for the sprinkler system). In that moment I started sobbing as the reality hit me that I could have fallen and been impaled and not made it home to my kids! The rest of the trip was awful. We barely drank, we hid from the group, mostly because of how embarrassing this whole ordeal was as we are not a couple who fights in public or causes drama. I was awarded the “trophy” that year by my husbands boss as the biggest drunk of the trip. I was again mortified…all the while knowing in the back of my head and in my gut something worse had happened to us but again, who would believe me and would people think I was just trying to cover up being as “drunk” as they all assumed me to be. About two days after this had happened to us, another couple with our group had a very scary incident happen to them that is worth sharing. They were about to enter their room and a hotel employee, security guard I believe, ran up to them and was frantic and asking them to help, that there was a girl who needed medical assistance. He was frantic and pulling them away. They went with him and he led them to the girl who was on the ground with foam coming out of her mouth. They were pulled away from their room long enough that when they had gotten back their safe was open and all their jewelry, cash and other items stored were gone. Nothing else was touched only the safe. They ran back to where the girl had been and their was no trace of anyone and neither the girl or the security guard were spotted again. They went to file a report and had to fight to even get the incident documented were discounted and told nothing would be done for them. Too bad so sad basically. Finally on our last night my husband and I wanted to try to have one nice, romantic evening together and we dressed up went to dinner and stopped for a nightcap in the disco on the resort property. I had one frozen drink of some sort and my husband had two. We had an early morning and flight and went to bed shortly after we finished the drinks. I awoke around 5 am to the worst stomach cramps of my life, screaming out in agony and curled up on the bed unable to move. My husband helped me to the bathroom and I got sick over and over again. Both ends violently. By this time my husband started to get woozy as well but could function better than I. We had to travel back to the US that morning and I didn’t even know if I could dress myself, but there was no way I was staying in Cabo or at that resort another minute! On our travels that day I got sick countless times, on the planes, in the airports and on our drive home… it was the worst travel experience of my life. Both me and my husband were hospitalized upon returning home for one day with fluids being pumped into our system as we were both severely dehydrated and were told we had ecoli poisoning. Great way to end a nightmare of a trip. I don’t know if we did have ecoli, but my gut tells me we were again drugged or that time it was the tainted alcohol you keep hearing about. All in all, the resort, its staff and the whole experience was disgusting. I would never go back and will never go back to any all inclusive in Mexico. Period. After being home I ended up giving my sister the full disclosure of what had happened to us that day. She is and RN and looked at me halfway through my story and said “Nic, your guys were drugged”. It sent chills up my spine until that moment the thought hadn't crossed my mind, honestly. I was confused as to how Shane and I would both go down within a minute of each other and for many other reasons but being drugged was not on my radar at all. She explained before i even got into the other half of the story (i was just telling her about what happened at the pool when we both went down) exactly how a “date rape” drug works, the effects it has on you…there are variances and in that moment I knew she was right. We had been drugged. It hit me harder, as I'm 5’5” and 180 lbs and my husband is 6’7” and 300 lbs. I told her the rest of my story and she and I both were convinced that is exactly what happened. My husband didn't want to believe it at first. When I would tell him i heard people talking in our room and couldn't wake to see who it was, he told me it was most likely people outside our balcony or our room. I knew that wasn't it but again, who would have been in our room. Why was my husband butt naked above the covers of our bed and I had clothes on (I did have clothes on when my husband woke, he verified it as I couldn't remember) and WHY was I screaming at him about having sex with a Canadian? He kept assuring me that there were many Canadians in the pool that day, mostly women and I was just drunk and confused…well after the realization we were drugged he figured I was dreaming about him cheating on me as he was convinced no one had been in the room with us. Then the stories started to come out from others who had way too similar of experiences that we knew I was most likely correct. This was happening, it had happened to us and we were just shocked. I found this website and read others stories and talked to a local woman who had just been interviewed and in the news for a story very similar to ours. I am today convinced my gut was right and we were not alone in that room for those 2 hours. Something bad did happen to us and also that we will never know the truth. We are both healthy today thank God and made it safely back to the US and will never be visiting Mexico again.