The horrifying lethal danger lurking in vacation paradises... putting millions of Americans at risk as they relax this summer

By CADY LANG - US FEATURES WRITER Published: 20:51, 26 July 2026 | Updated: 20:51, 26 July 2026 When Rachel Villarreal accepted a free shot during a boat ride in Mexico City, she never dreamed that something so seemingly harmless would lead to a near-death experience and two years of harrowing, life-altering health issues. Until then, Villarreal, 38, and her boyfriend Anthony Grigsby, 44, were enjoying a much-anticipated vacation in Mexico City. The couple, who worked together for a hospitality group in San Antonio, Texas, had been helping to open a new restaurant for much of the previous year. Their January 2024 trip to Mexico couldn't have come at a better time. After a morning of sightseeing, they took that boat ride on Mexico City's famed Xochimilco canals. The scene was festive, with locals and tourists out enjoying the waterways. 'Everybody was celebrating and having drinks,' Grigsby, 44, told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview. 'We're not much of drinkers, but we were on vacation, so we thought we would have a drink too.' The couple ordered two micheladas - a mix of lager, tomato juice and lime - from a local vendor, who also offered them free shots of pulque, a traditional Mexican alcohol made from agave. Grigsby and Villarreal, touched by the generous gesture, they took them. They had no idea that these drinks would irrevocably change their lives forever. Rachel Villarreal and her boyfriend Anthony Grigsby had no idea that a much-anticipated vacation in Mexico City would change their lives forever Ashley King is legally blind after having a cocktail contaminated with methanol when she was backpacking through Bali when she was 18 Costa Rica is among the popular vacation destinations where alcohol contaminated with methanol is considered a risk. In 2019, 26 people died after consuming the toxic liquid  Just an hour later, during their car ride back to their Airbnb, Villarreal began feeling ill, experiencing cramping and stomach pain. At the house, she had a headache and body aches and began vomiting, lying in the bathroom's shower for hours, unable to find any relief. Grigsby had similar symptoms, though not nearly as severe as Villarreal's. The couple, who were due to fly back to Texas the next day, tried to wait out going to the doctor until they were home, but after Villarreal lost consciousness, Grigsby called 911. She was rushed to the hospital, where she was put in an induced coma, intubated, and placed in intensive care. Doctors ran a toxicology report and found Villarreal had traces of methanol in her blood. Her symptoms aligned with the finding as methanol is known to cause: brain swelling, organ shut down and breathing difficulties. Methanol - colorless, tasteless and toxic - is a simple alcohol, commonly used in substances like antifreeze, car fluid and formaldehyde. What it's less known for is its growing use as an illegal, cheap and deadly addition to spirits. Methanol is added to increase the alcohol content of a drink, especially in places where alcohol production is not well-regulated. Places like Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam... places to where, every year, millions of Americans travel on vacation. They let down their hair and their guard, accept that welcome shot at the resort, order that cocktail at the swim-up bar and, all too often, unwittingly roll the dice in a lethal game of chance. Methanol sometimes accidentally occurs in moonshine or homebrewed spirits when they're improperly distilled, but troublingly, there are growing reports that it is being intentionally added to spirits instead of ethanol - which is safe for human consumption in moderation - as a cost-cutting method. For Villarreal, that single measure of pulque was enough to leave her debilitated and besieged by life-threatening health issues for the next two years. 'We never knew that any of this would happen,' Villarreal told the Daily Mail, noting that she and Grigsby had prepared for their trip by doing research about how to travel safely in Mexico City, but that none of the blogs and websites they read had mentioned methanol poisoning as a concern. 'We did everything we could to protect ourselves.' Since she was poisoned by methanol during that fateful Mexico City trip, Villarreal has died and been resuscitated three times. Her lungs have collapsed and she has had to have countless surgeries, including a tracheostomy and a major operation on her esophagus. She had to re-learn how to walk, lost her ability to speak for a period and has put in had hours of rehabilitation and therapy. She and Grigsby have had to leave their dream jobs because of the demands of their new life. They are in constant battles with insurance companies. When Villarreal accepted a free shot during a boat ride on Mexico City's famed Xochimilco canals, she never dreamed that something so seemingly harmless would lead to a near-death experience Villarreal was rushed to the hospital, where she was put in an induced coma, intubated and placed in intensive care Villarreal was poisoned by methanol. She died and was resuscitated three times In the years after the trip, Villarreal suffered harrowing, life-altering health issues  Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Yet, hard as it may be to believe, Villarreal is luckier than many other victims of methanol poisoning; methanol has left some victims blind, others in a coma or with permanent brain damage. In many instances the outcome has been fatal. According to Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), it takes just 10 ml or two teaspoons of methanol to experience blindness, while 30 ml, about a mouthful of liquid, can be fatal for an adult. When not treated, the fatality rate is 20-40%. With documented suspected cases of methanol poisoning in 80 countries, methanol poisoning is a global issue that poses a growing concern for travelers venturing to places where bootleg or homemade liquor is prevalent. Seventy-one percent of the world's methanol poisoning takes place in Asia, a destination which draws 7 million Americans each year - backpackers and luxury-seekers alike. In 2024, a couple from the UK and South Africa, died from methanol poisoning after drinking homemade limoncello gifted by the villa in which they were staying in Vietnam. In 2009, 25 people died in Bali, after drinking methanol-contaminated arak, or rice wine - a death toll that included American tourist Rose Johnson, a 48-year-old artist from Arizona. MSF reports that in the past two decades Indonesia has had the highest number of reported incidents of methanol in the world. Six foreign tourists, including American James Louis Huston, 57, died after having tainted alcohol in Laos in Southeast Asia, in 2024, while 26 people died in Costa Rica from alcohol contaminated with the toxic liquid during the summer of 2019. In Mexico, the counterfeit market for alcohol is a major issue, one that's fueled by the country's steep taxes on spirits. Just last month authorities seized a batch of bootleg Gran Centenario Reposado/Añejo Tequila which contained lethal levels of methanol - 5000 units per 100ml (16 times the legal limit of 300 ml). The batch was linked to five deaths and 28 hospitalizations in Salamanca, Guanajuato. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office recently added Mexico to its strict travel warning list as being high risk for methanol poisoning. According to a 2017 report by Mexico's Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks, the national health authority has seized more than 1.4 million gallons of counterfeit alcohol since 2010. The year that report was issued an aggrieved family from Wisconsin alleged they lost their 19-year-old daughter, Abbey Conner, to a methanol-laced drink while vacationing in a five-star resort in Cancun in 2017. The family has brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the resort and its parent company. Abbey Conner, 19, died after getting a methanol-laced drink while vacationing in a five-star resort in Cancun in 2017 The family has brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the resort and its parent company According to the lawsuit, obtained by the Daily Mail, Abbey and her brother, Austin, were served drinks at the hotel's pool bar on the day of their arrival on January 7, 2017. At some point staff were alerted by a guest that two people were 'drowning in the pool.' Abbey was floating face down. Austin was 'kicking and splashing.' Both were taken to hospital where Austin was sedated but recovered. Two days later, Abbey was transferred from a local Intensive Care Unit to a hospital in Fort Lauderdale where she was declared dead January 12. The hotel and parent company have dismissed the family's allegations regarding methanol poisoning as 'hear-say' and unsubstantiated. The case is ongoing. But the issues persist - at least 40 people died from methanol poisoning in Mexico in 2020. Ashley King, a Calgary-based actor and writer who is legally blind after having a cocktail contaminated with methanol when she was backpacking through Bali as an 18-year-old, believes there needs to be more education about the risk of exposure to methanol. King, who is now 33, has become a vocal advocate on the subject works with organizations like Methaknow and launched her own podcast, Static, to speak about the issue. 'I think it's super important that people know that methanol poisoning exists and that it happens,' King told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview. 'When it happened to me, social media wasn't as big. I did my research before traveling and didn't come across anything about methanol poisoning. Maybe if I had known about it, I could have saved my eyesight.' While King wishes that there was a way to enforce more stringent regulations for alcohol production, she knows that there's no way to ensure that it happens worldwide. She also believes that people who are going on vacation shouldn't feel like that can't enjoy a drink or two - they may just need to be savvy about what they're choosing at the bar. 'Unfortunately, a lot of these countries aren't going to stop doing this,' King said. 'I think it's really important that people know that they can easily avoid being poisoned by methanol based on the drinks they choose.' 'I think it's super important that people know that methanol poisoning exists and that it happens,' Ashley King told the Daily Mail  King suggests that travelers stick to pre-mixed drinks or beverages like beer and wine that are served sealed in a bottle or can, which are safer because they 'can't be tampered with.' 'I still travel and I still drink when I travel,' King said. 'I have 2% of my eyesight, so I need to go with people that I trust and feel safe with and I'm very conscientious about what I drink.' For Grigsby and Villarreal, however, traveling isn't top of their priorities right now. Instead, the couple are focused on Villarreal's recovery, which they work at daily with trips to the gym and continued therapy and medical appointments. Villarreal hopes to return to working in the hospitality industry and she and Grigsby dream of opening their own restaurant together one day. In a bitter irony they recently won a trip to Cancun. Unsurprisingly they did not take it. 'I did love Mexico City, [but] it's hard to want to go back,' Grigsby said. 'I think if we were ever to go again, we would never have a drink there at all.'