Shasta Townsend, a Canadian who helps foreigners relocate to the Mexican tourist magnet Puerto Vallarta, was driving into the city Sunday morning when she spotted a large column of smoke off in the distance.
Several cars along the road had flat tires — and it soon became clear why. As she looked on, she said, two men on a motorcycle pulled up and started scattering spikes on the road.
“That was a little heart-racing,” Ms. Townsend said.
Hours earlier, Mexican security forces had killed the most powerful cartel leader in the country. Now the cartel was wreaking revenge, blocking roadways and setting shops afire across Mexico. And some tourist towns like Puerto Vallarta, ordinarily spared Mexico’s drug violence, were also in the cross-hairs.
On Monday, the coastal city was still shrouded in smoke and unease, but with the violence appearing to abate, people began venturing out onto the streets.
The mayor of Puerto Vallarta, Luis Ernesto Munguía, said the city was taking emergency measures to restore order, including restoring public transportation services.
A day earlier, the U.S. government had advised stranded Americans to “shelter in place” in parts of the country. Cruise ships quickly recharted their courses, taking a pass on a popular tourist destination now plunged into chaos.
But it was too late for some visitors. They were already in the thick of things.
Among them was Mitchell Fain, an actor from Chicago. “It’s like, how are we going to get the hell out of here?” he said in an interview on Sunday evening.
On Monday Seana Pedelaborde, an American tourist who had taken shelter with her mother, stood among hundreds of people lined up — almost around the block — outside one of the first grocery stores to reopen.
Just hours earlier, she said, when commuters would normally have been going to work and students to school, the major highway next to her hotel was almost empty.
“It’s just a ‘wait-and-see situation,’” said Ms. Pedelaborde, 59, who lives in California and owns a jewelry company.
With the Jalisco New Generation cartel vowing revenge for the death of its leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, many people across the country, despite assurances from the government, worry about what the next few days, or even hours, might bring.
Jamie Alexander, a Canadian living in Puerto Vallarta who works with a vacation rental agency, said he saw people lining up outside small markets and bakeries in the Zona Romántica, the main tourist neighborhood, Monday morning. Some emerged with large loads of supplies.
The scenes reminded him of the panic buying during the early days of the pandemic.
“I saw people coming out of the grocery stores with like six loaves of bread,” he said. “What are you doing with six loaves of bread? It’s this sense of urgency that the worst is going to happen.”
Even tourists who were able to leave their hotels to get supplies were not sure what their next move would be.
Several airlines have canceled flights, including United, Delta, American and Alaska. The airlines have issued travel advisories for airports in Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, waiving change fees for passengers whose itineraries are affected. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico said she hoped flights would be fully restored no later than Tuesday.
Ms. Townsend, the Canadian tourist adviser, said that after she saw the motorcyclist spreading spikes on Sunday, she and her husband were able to navigate through the intersection and make it to a Holiday Inn where clients was staying.
Multiple fires burned around them, she said, with a bus and motorcycle were set ablaze a block away. Exploding tires sounded like gunshots.
But by just after 9 a.m. on Monday, she said, though she could still see smoke from a burning fire, the streets looked calmer. From her hotel window, a few floors up, she could see people walking their dogs and even holding hands as the day began.
That, she said, was what normal looked like in Puerto Vallarta.
“Within about 24 hours, peace and order have been restored — at least for today,” she said.
Ceylan Yeğinsu and Carolina Gómez contributed reporting.
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
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