PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (KGTV) - Tyler Parkinson was one of 10 wedding guests staying at a two-story Airbnb in central Puerto Vallarta when he was jolted out of his bed by explosions early Sunday morning.
"I just hear like a huge explosion… a really big boom, like something blew up, and then I heard another one after that," said Parkinson. The wedding had taken place the day before.
As the violence unfolded, Parkinson and his group monitored online reports of the cartel activity while watching the chaos unfold from their rental.
"There's people ripping around the neighborhood on motorcycles. I was standing up on the balcony on the back, and all of a sudden I see smoke starting to pour out of the Oxxo, so I'm like, well, they just set that on fire," Parkinson said.
The Oxxo convenience store, located two houses down from where Parkinson was staying, was set ablaze. Cars in the neighborhood were also torched. Parkinson captured video of the smoke rising from the burning vehicles and also sounds he believes were gunshots.
With the fire spreading nearby, the group scrambled to gather their belongings.
"So everybody kind of like got together and then gathered up their stuff all quick. We didn't know if it was gonna catch our house on fire," Parkinson said.
The group was not harmed. The violence died down late Sunday afternoon, leaving the area quiet.
“It was a ghost town," Parkinson said.
With businesses shut down, Parkinson's group searched for food the next morning and encountered a local selling food out of his car, including fish and rice.
By Tuesday morning, most businesses had reopened, and no additional violence had been reported.
Parkinson's Sunday flight home had been canceled. He is due to fly home on Friday.
Despite the ordeal, Parkinson said the experience gave him perspective.
“Not what I was expecting on a wedding vacation… It kind of makes for a good story," Parkinson said.
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