The black smoke was the first sign something ominous was happening Sunday in Puerto Vallarta.

Cory and Annie Dietz of Vadnais Heights noticed the smoke as they began another day of their three-week vacation at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, a place the retirees visit every year in a city where they have always felt safe.

They didn’t know it then, but they were witnessing the cartel-related violence that took place throughout the region in the aftermath of the killing of drug lord Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, by the Mexican army in the state of Jalisco.

“We were sitting at the resort on Sunday morning and we were seeing black smoke all over the place,” said Cory in a phone interview with the Pioneer Press from Puerto Vallarta. “Nobody knew what it was.”

Unbothered at first by the mystery smoke, they set out on their daily, 2-mile morning walk. There was more smoke.

Burned cars are seen in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in the aftermath of the Feb. 22, 2026, killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” the leader of one of the world’s largest drug cartels. (Courtesy of Cory Dietz)

“We saw two buses fully engulfed, turned on their sides and blocking the main concrete road going through town,” Cory says. “It was really weird because there was no traffic, but we did see motorcycles running around.”

He noticed the motorcyclists weaving in and around were wearing backpacks, and he now wonders if they were part of the cartel activity of setting vehicles and businesses alight, although he did not witness anyone setting fires. He did, however, spot something strange.

“It was really weird, it was like a movie where all these locals were staring at their phones and not moving, like they were frozen,” Cory recalls. “It was eerie.”

There wasn’t much time to consider the situation, though.

“As we were going over there,” he recalls of the burning scene, “there were guys yelling, in English, ‘Get off the streets! Get inside, get inside!’”

As they left, he says, they heard one of the burning buses explode.

Locked down

After the couple returned to their hotel, they hunkered down with everyone else as part of a shelter-in-place advisory.

“The hotel basically said it’s a lockdown and we were not supposed to leave the resort,” Cory says. “At the beginning, it felt kind of like COVID, where no one knew what was going to happen with everything closed down.”

For example, the resort is supplied with water via daily tankers.

“We were wondering if we should consume or save our water, and our food,” he says.

Staff also sheltered at the resort, with sleeping quarters set up in a common space and beach chairs for makeshift beds. A hotel across the street boarded its entry with plywood; a nearby shopping center with a hotel above it locked its gates, something the Minnesotans had never seen happen before. There were also no beach vendors for a couple of days and, with no buses, taxis or Ubers on the roads, they noticed more people being ferried about on boats.

It was unsettling, of course, but they still had food to eat, water to drink and a safe place to stay with continued hospitality.

Annie Dietz of Vadnais Heights on vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in February 2026, after a shelter-in-place order was lifted with the easing of cartel-related violence in the aftermath of the killing of a drug lord. (Courtesy of Cory Dietz)

“The locals were thanking us and apologizing,” Cory says.

Returning to normal

By Wednesday, with the shelter-in-place advisory and other restrictions lifted, flights resuming and daily life returning to more normalcy, the couple resumed their walks, spotting military helicopters and trucks here and there as well as the restoration of stoplights and other clean-up work of burned-out vehicles and businesses.

RELATED: Online disinformation fueled panic after killing of Mexico’s most powerful drug lord

On their walkabout, they paused at Costco, which made international headlines during the unrest due to more black smoke and fears that the store was heavily damaged.

Cory Dietz of Vadnais Heights in front of a burned vehicle outside Costco in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on Wednesday. (Courtesy of Cory Dietz)

“They’re still clearing the trucks that burned outside of it, but it was 100% open and people were in there shopping,” Cory said on Wednesday.

The couple didn’t resume all their planned activities, though, during this uncertain time.

“I was supposed to go parasailing on Monday, but I didn’t want to,” he said. “They suggested I could go on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I said, ‘Nah. I’ll do it next year.’”

With shelter and travel restrictions lifted, the Minnesotans have also had plenty of elbow room at their hotel, Plaza Pelicanos Club Beach Resort, where they usually are in the company of many Canadian guests as well as Mexican travelers.

“The resort is not busy,” he says. “There aren’t many locals staying here right now — we’ve been speculating that they canceled their trips.” Also, he says, “planes are leaving right and left. I think the airlines are getting caught up.”

RELATED: Mexico’s Diving World Cup canceled after violence surge in Jalisco but the FIFA World Cup is proceeding

The couple, along with a friend from South Dakota who they are traveling with, boarded a full flight headed back home on Thursday.

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Other than the days of disruption following Sunday’s violence, it’s been vacation as usual for Annie, 65, and Cory, 68, who celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary on Feb. 17.

“Same thing, laying in the sun with a margarita,” Cory says of how they have spent these last few days.

It might have been a strange end to their vacation, but this Minnesotan hasn’t been frightened in Mexico.

“Never felt scared,” he said. “Maybe I should have.”

As for next year?

“Oh, we’ll be back,” he says.