Sun, sex and tequila

For high schoolers in Cancun, drinking goes until dawn and dangers of alcohol poisoning and rape are not far behind

April 26, 2001 Detroit Free Press

BY TAMARA AUDI

CANCUN, Mexico -- The party started at noon. The actual drinking started earlier, around 10 a.m., with beers by the pool and in the pool. By noon, high school boys and girls from Taylor, senior girls from St. Clair Shores, juniors and seniors from Fenton, 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds from Dearborn were ready for tequila, for vodka, for more Corona, more Dos Equis. And so they went to the party at Fat Tuesday's.

It was the thing to do in Cancun one afternoon last week, since their tour company, Student Express, was hosting the party. Never mind that it was a perfect day at the beach, that the Caribbean was a stunning, undulating, turquoise dream. It was just the backdrop to an MTV fantasy. Never mind that many of them had been drinking all night at the clubs and hadn't slept yet.

Tour companies promoted the drinking parties by including them in the tour packages sold to students in Michigan. And reminders were there on the tour schedules, beckoning: "Beach Beer Bash FREE Beer/Volleyball."

And so they went.

There were party favors: a shot glass, a beer glass, and condoms. There were party games: who could swallow a bottle of tequila cocktail fastest through a funnel, who could lick whipped cream and jello off the body of a girl fastest, and who could blow up a condom first.

One girl, reluctant to participate, was scolded by the DJ, who yelled into the microphone: "Back home, you might be daddy's little girl or prom queen, but here in Cancun you're just another beeeeiitch!"

The drunken crowd cheered and danced to a thick, thumping rap rhythm. From the center of the outdoor dance floor, a tangerine-colored bikini top flew up into the brilliant blue sky.

It was just the beginning.

As day turned to night, there would be Happy Hour at Ma'ax'o (free drinks from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.) and then Open Bar at club La Boom (7 p.m. to 3 a.m.). After 3 a.m., the drinking would continue back in hotel rooms, or hotel pools, or beachside. Some of the thousands of spring breakers in town from across the country would make the even riskier move of buying pot or ecstasy on the way back to their rooms.

Drinking age rarely enforced

Spring break had long ago earned Cancun a reputation as a wild place, but the college kids and MTV, who made the place famous, had left weeks ago. Mid-April was the high school crowd, a relatively new and growing spring break market in places like Cancun, where the drinking age is 18 and rarely enforced, and tour companies boast all-you-can-drink packages that are sold to teens of any age, with no questions asked.

"Our parents have no idea. They don't know what goes on down here," said Jenny Drewno, 18, of St. Clair Shores. She came to Cancun with seven girlfriends, unchaperoned.

Another 18-year-old high school senior boasted that she "made out with 11 guys" in one night of clubbing in Cancun. "It's crazy here. You can do whatever," she said.

They'd never do these things back home, the teens kept saying.

That kind of freedom was more than some students could handle.

During Easter Week, when most Michigan high schools were on spring break, one Taylor high school senior was hospitalized in Cancun after she consumed a drink spiked with the date-rape drug GHB. Another U.S. spring breaker died in a motor-scooter accident; doctors and police said alcohol was involved. Students were arrested in drunken bar brawls and for public indecency all week.

Alcohol was nearly impossible to avoid: drinking was encouraged at every turn. The teens bought wristbands that allowed them into clubs for up to 100 hours of unlimited free drinks for the week. Day and night activities for students set up by bars and promoted by tour companies revolved around drinking: the Bladder Bust Party, the Booze Cruise, the Tequila Sunrise Party, and on and on.

"I've been on the liquid diet," said Mario Salinas, 17, biting into a piece of cheese pizza in his hotel room. Salinas, a senior from Taylor, came to Cancun with his buddies from Truman High School. "This is the first food I've had in two days. We get up, we drink. We go out, we drink." He opened the in-room refrigerator. "Hey! We're out of beer!"

'No questions at all!'

It is an atmosphere made for anonymous sex and excessive drinking, with constant wink-wink, nudge-nudge reminders from tour sponsors and club operators to let loose.

"This is the place your parents warned you about," reads the sign on one club, Cancun XXXtreme. At club Daddy'O a billboard says: "No questions at all!"

Colorado-based Student Express, one of the largest Cancun tour operators, distributes a list of Spring Break 2001 Rules to its groups. Rule No. 1: "What happens in Cancun stays in Cancun." That rule is listed first, before ones about guarding passports, avoiding fighting and drugs, calling home and locating the hospital.

The reason for this rule is especially clear inside Cancun's clubs.

One night a week during spring break, club La Boom hosts its much-touted Screw Party. The party is heavily promoted by tour operators, who sell students $25 wristbands that give admission and unlimited free drinks. Students under 18 have no problem getting them.

At the party, boys are given screws, and girls nuts. The game is to match the screw with the correct-fitting nut. The sexual innuendo adds an extra punch to an already charged atmosphere.

Clothes removed on dance floor

Well into the night at last week's party, drunken teenagers removed their clothes on the dance floor. A group of three boys danced on the bar and stripped naked. Girls dancing nearby spanked them. The boys reached for the faces of the girls below them on the dance floor and beckoned them to perform a sex act. A few did; others were repelled.

Another girl in a blue-and-white halter top danced on the other side of the bar, switching from dance partner to dance partner, and kissing each one. She pulled her top down around her waist. Teenage boys swarmed her, kissing her face and body. Other boys undid her shorts. She threw her head back, as if gulping for air. A young man on the fringe stuck his finger in her mouth. With his free hand, he videotaped her.

Student Express officials provided the Free Press a copy of a letter they said was sent to club owners on April 4 demanding that clubs stop public nudity and sex. But three weeks later, it was still happening in the presence of tour and bar staffers.

"There's a line you draw and where it goes from there you can't always control," said Steve Armstrong, a Student Express vice president. "We don't want to promote any scenes of lewd activity. We don't own or control those nightclubs. We don't control everything that happens with them."

Although the girl at the bar appeared drunk, she did not appear to resist. But other young women on spring break have reported rape and instances of being drugged with GHB.

'I can't feel my body'

At another party, a senior from Taylor's Truman High School was slipped GHB in a drink. Her friends carried her to a nearby hospital when she started feeling the drug's effects.

"I was scared. She kept saying 'I can't feel my body. I can't breathe,' " said Stephanie Brayman, 18, from Taylor. Brayman said her friend went to a hospital when she returned to Michigan on Sunday and doctors confirmed there had been GHB in her system.

Doctors at AmeriMed, an emergency care hospital near the clubs, said that they see a handful of rape cases each month. Most of the doctors' time is spent dealing with cases of alcohol poisoning during the spring break season -- at least four cases a day when the high school students are in town, said Dr. Francisco Lopez.

"They don't understand clearly how much alcohol they've been drinking, or what it does to them," he said.

Alcohol also fuels many arrests in Cancun.

Jailhouse reserved for tourists

A mint green jailhouse stands at the far end of a quiet stretch of beach, far removed from the main club scene. Known as Spring Break Jail, it hosts a steady stream of teens arrested in drunken bar brawls, or for having sex on the beach, a criminal offense in Cancun. The facility is reserved for tourists. Mexicans are taken to another jail miles away in downtown Cancun.

At 4 a.m. on Tuesday of last week, Cancun police officer Manuel Cervantes brought in a sobbing 17-year-old girl from Macomb County who was arrested while having sex on the beach behind a popular club. The teenage boy she was with, Cervantes said, "got away from us. He got up and ran, ran, ran. And she was screaming 'Come back, don't leave me!' He never looked back."

The girl stood in the corner of the jailhouse office shaking. Sand was caked on her face, on her stomach and legs. Her clothes, a black halter top and shorts, were twisted. Her shoulder-length hair was matted and damp. Dark eye makeup was smeared across her cheeks. She cried into her hands. "I want to go home. I want to go home."

She waited her turn to see the judge, a trim, tanned man in a black polo shirt and khaki pants. He sat, unsmiling, in a harshly lighted room with a desk, two chairs and a fan. Teen after teen sat before him, pleading through a translator. They cried, waved their arms wildly and begged. The judge was unfazed.

When the sobbing, sand-covered girl came before him, the judge fined her $240 (U.S.). "But I don't have any money," she said, struggling to get the words out between sobs. "I'm so scared."

Her friends came up with the money. One girlfriend, a high school senior, was angry and crying. "I'm just glad I'm picking her up from jail and not scraping her off the street," she said. "This is too much for me."

A drunk and frightened girl

Elsewhere, others were just as overwhelmed.

"I WANT TO GO HOOOOOOME!" The wailing came from a girl on the fourth floor of the Calinda Beach Hotel.

The girl doing the screaming was drunk and frightened. The room was spinning, she screamed. Her friends tried to comfort her. When she wasn't yelling, her head was in the toilet.

"She's never had this much to drink before. She's scared out of her mind," said her friend, 19-year-old Mike Alfredson of Otisville, a small town north of Flint. Alfredson sat in the hotel's hallway waiting for his turn to baby-sit her.

The young woman, who traveled to Cancun from Michigan with Alfredson and a few other friends, spent the entire day drinking a potent liquor concoction known as Long Island Iced Tea. "Nobody told her to stop," Alfredson said. "And she didn't know when to stop because she doesn't really drink back home."

Down the hall, the teens from Taylor were sleeping in their rooms. Many of them had been drinking all day. At 9 p.m., their doors were open to the hallway, but the wailing girl didn't wake them. They had fallen on their beds on top of the covers, in their clothes. In a few hours they would get up and get dressed for a night of dancing at the clubs, and for some of them, more drinking.

High school market growing

During spring break season, 100,000 U.S. high school and college students visit Cancun. Travel agents said the high school spring break market is growing every year.

Most tour companies offer graduation trips for high school seniors in June that don't feature free alcohol as part of the package. But more and more high school students are interested in the spring break packages precisely because of the alcohol.

"Big monsters, that's what they are," said Joe Contreras, a taxi driver in Cancun for 15 years. "They destroy the taxis, buses, hotel rooms."

But, Contreras added after a moment, "It's still good that they come here. It's more money for everybody."

Spring break trips can cost from $700 to $900, and include airfare, hotel, meals and a package of drinking parties. In addition to the base price, many students purchase wristbands from the dozen or so major tour operators to Cancun that allow access to even more drinking events.

Agent explained drinking situation

For $49, teens from Truman High School in Taylor and Riverview High School in Riverview purchased wristbands from Student Express through a local travel agent, Debbie Travis, of Away We Go Travel in Trenton. Their travel package and this wristband included breakfasts, dinners, beach activities and 35 hours of unlimited drinking. The teens then had the option of buying additional party passes through Student Express for another 45 hours of unlimited drinking.

Travis said she went out of her way to explain to parents that the drinking age in Mexico is 18, and largely unenforced.

"I try to be very up-front with parents," Travis said. Weeks before the trip, she passed out a schedule of party events that showed that alcohol would be available.

Travis said she told parents that Student Express would allow students under 18 to purchase the bands, and that it was up to the kids to refrain from drinking. Students could also buy wristbands to get into booze parties from about a dozen more tour operators who set up tables in hotel lobbies.

Officials from Student Express, like other tour operators, said it's up to teens to make sure they only drink if they're old enough and that they drink responsibly.

"We certainly don't condone underage drinking, but it's pretty hard to have a system where you can positively identify every underage drinker," said Armstrong of Student Express. "I'm simply selling what's available in Cancun. I can not not offer the entertainment that Cancun offers because in someone's judgmental opinion that is not proper."

Selling to underage drinkers is common among the large tour operators to Mexico, said Michael Palmer, executive director of Student Youth Travel Association of North America, a national trade organization based in Lake Orion.

"It's a problem situation when tours are geared for students over 18 and they're being sold to under 18," Palmer said. "It's an ethical issue. It's a problem for the parents, for the students and for the industry."

Tour operator has staff in Cancun

Like most big tour operators, Student Express has a staff in Cancun to make sure students are satisfied with the travel plans and activities. Armstrong's staff also passes out wristbands with an emergency hospital number, and staff members are on-site at hotels where the company's students are booked. But the staff is not there to baby-sit or chaperone, Armstrong said.

"There needs to be some parental discretion there," Armstrong said. "You can't expect a travel company to control the actions of individuals and make those decisions for those people. I try to advise parents if you're not confident in the decision-making abilities of your child I would not recommend you send them unaccompanied to Mexico."

The parents from Taylor finally exhaled on Sunday morning, when their children stepped off the plane at Metro Airport. There were no major tragedies, but the trip tally included: one dragon tattoo, two tongue piercings, one eyebrow piercing, one day lost to sleeping off hangovers, one broken tooth (from a fall) and one lost wallet.

"It was more than some of us expected," said Stephanie Brayman of Taylor. "I know I can handle myself. If I had the chance I'd definitely go back. My kids, on the other hand, I don't know if they'd go."

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), April 27, 2001

Answers

What these kids need is a chaperone. I am available.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), April 29, 2001.

GHB is VERY dangerous. So is this type of vacation. Wonder who is financing teenage vacations to Cancun?

I for one, would NEVER let my 17 yr old go w/out me. At 18, he is legal to leave home,vote, but NOT drink.

Anyone know what cancun's drink age is? Sorry if i missed it in the article.

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), April 30, 2001.

Sumer, I think the article said the age limit in Cancun is 18 but it is not enforced.

Why wasn't there fun stuff like this when I was in HS? It was a big deal to go to Asbury Park.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), April 30, 2001.

Why wasn't there fun stuff like this when I was in HS?

There was, Lars. We just weren't imaginative enough to search it out. Take for instance these creative high schoolers. (I played high school baseball. Why didn't I think of this!?...)

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010427/od/strippers_dc_1.html Friday April 27 12:13 PM ET

High School Ball Players Stumble Off Field

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - A high school baseball team committed its worst error off the field during a road trip last week by hiring strippers to perform in their hotel room, the Columbus Dispatch reported on Friday.

School authorities in Lancaster, Ohio, near Columbus suspended 14 players from school for a week, kicked them off the team and suspended head coach Tim Graham, who resigned his coaching and teaching position at the school on Thursday.

Graham said neither he nor his coaches were with the players when the episode occurred during a road trip in Cincinnati, but accepted full responsibility for not exercising proper supervision.

The players pooled their spending money and hired the strippers after calling a service advertised in the telephone book, the newspaper reported.

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), April 30, 2001.

CD--

I was big into ogling and copping feels.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), April 30, 2001.

Note to self "while in columbus on business, NO strippers".

Lol.

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), April 30, 2001.

'sumer,

Instead of strippers, there might be something at the Palace or on OSU campus. If you ordered your tour guide (1-800-BUCKEYE), there's a section for stuff going on in Columbus. Then again, if you insist on strippers, I'm sure we can find you several guys from the paint division at Honda! 8-)

-- kb8 (kb8um8@yahoo.com), April 30, 2001.

Lars:

I know I took my kids to Cancun one Christmas season, but I can't remember whether they were in high-school yet or still elementary school. My guess is that the oldest was in high-school while the two younger children were still in elementary school. I think we're talking about rich kids here and parents who just pay the bills.

All in all, however, I didn't see any strict enforcement of drinking laws in Cancun or any place in Mexico. In fact, I'm quite sure I sent my #2 daughter down to the bar a few times to say, "Una mas cerveza por mi madre, por favor." [Forgive my spelling on that one. My Spanish only gets refreshed when I think I'll need it.] If THAT excuse isn't good enough, I'll blame it on the haircut #2 gave me this morning before she flew back to her home in Illinois. Isn't there a man in mythology who lost his strength when his hair was cut? I LOVE the hair cut. My hair looks MUCH healthier now, but it feels strange to have hair that only goes down my back about five inches.

Perhaps as a source of amusement, as well as a contribution to thread drift, I'll relate the story of WHY my daughter cut my hair so much. Most of you already knew that my hair came close to my waist. When I picked up #2 from the airport, she wanted to smoke a cigarette, but the window on the passenger of my car doesn't open. I kept MY window wide open, and SHE opened the sun-roof. FIRST, my hair blew out the window on my side of the car. THEN, my hair flew up and out of the sun-roof. By the time we got home from the airport, #2 said, "Mom, we REALLY need to do something about your hair. It's COMPLETELY tangled." She combed it for a while. *I* brushed it for a while. WE compromised on a braid, which she put in. I mentioned that I needed it trimmed, but the local hairdressers charge by length. SO trimmed it for me before the LV trip, and I thought he did a damn good job. #2 sectioned it, cut it, sectioned it some more, etc. I had no idea she was cutting it so drastically, but hair grows, so it's no big deal.

Sorry to take your thread so off-topic, Lars. I just had this hair- cut on my mind today.

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), April 30, 2001.

Sounds like they need to leave that kind of partyin' to a professional : ) Mayhaps next trip!!!

-- capnfun (capnfun1@excite.com), April 30, 2001.

Isn't there a man in mythology who lost his strength when his hair was cut?

Biblical actually Anita, name was Samson. He let some how can i word it, ok, hoe, trick him into it. His strength was in his hair.

Kb: I'm gonna email ya. Today. Guys from the Honda paint division, hmmmmm? Lol.

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), May 01, 2001.

The story of Samson and Delilah makes for a good bar bet.

Question: I'll bet you $5 you can't tell me who cut Samson's hair.

Typical incorrect response: Delilah

Correct answer: According to the bible (or so I'm told), Delilah summoned one of her servants to cut his hair.

[To anyone who may have read this and came up with the incorrect response, please email me for instructions on where to send the $5. Thank you]

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), May 01, 2001.

Ha! CD, sorry, um, you wont get my 5.00 :-0

I just remember reading of her seduction which lead to the cutting of his hair. TRUST. Its a cruel life.

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), May 01, 2001.