A bunch of Jimmy Buffett fans vacationing in the Dominican Republic didn’t get their cheeseburger in paradise – but they did get sick there.
Dozens of tourists, many of who were members of the the Central Oklahoma Parrothead Association, became violently ill just days after they arrived for a stay at Punta Cana’s Hotel Riu Palace Macao back in April.
Dana Flowers, a travel agent and member of the Jimmy Buffett fan club, said of the 114 people on the trip, 47 of them got sick. Most were too ill to leave their rooms toward the end of what should have been a dream vacation, he added.
“Four or five days we were having a good time but then by the middle of the week people were beginning to get sick,” Flowers told KFOR, adding that he lost 14 pounds over the course of the illness he contracted on the trip.
“I can’t even explain how sick I was.”
No one in the group can say for sure what exactly sparked their poor health, but they did all have one thing in common: they all drank at the “swim-up pool bar or swam at the swim-up pool,” Flowers told the news station.
The Parrotheads are only the latest tourists to reveal health struggles amid a trip to the Dominican Republic. Several American travelers have died under mysterious circumstances while visiting the island over the course of the last year, at least five of them in the last few months alone.
The latest known victim, Staten Islander Leyla Cox, was found dead in her room of an apparent heart attack on Monday. She had just celebrated her 53rd birthday the day before.
On May 25, Miranda Schaup-Werner died just after checking into a Dominican Republic resort. The 41-year-old Pennsylvania woman had traveled there to celebrate her wedding anniversary. And just five days later, a Maryland couple, Edward Holmes and Cynthia Day, were also found dead in their hotel rooms.
The FBI on Wednesday announced it would assist local authorities in the Dominican Republic to examine the circumstances surrounding the recent tourist deaths. Further toxicology analysis on the victims could take up to 30 days.
