AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye Cosmo article

Bill, you are too funny. I also met you at the Chicken Drop. We all had a good time that night, with Hope, Rich, Becky, etc. I missed the Chicken drop, but oh well. . .

Hi Marquis: Face it, with a blink of the eye, ya missed it! Chicken could have at least farted. Maybe next year. Bill

Yep, Bill, I saw you.

Uh baby, baby!!

Since I seem to be the official spokesperson for Captain Morgan's Retreat, I apologize for not posting something regarding the Cosmo article earlier, but I have just returned from Belize where I was treated with the usual hospitality.

The incident in the article happened in May of 2000. When it happened the managing director, our attorney and another memeber of US management were at the resort by the pool which is not 500 feet from the girls' cabana with an unobstructed view of the back of their room. Other guests were also in the area and no one saw anyone go into or come out of their room. Inside the room there was no indication of a struggle nor did it appear as if the cabana had been broken into. The resort security did an immediate search of the property and surrounding areas and found no one suspicious. After the incident we were never contacted by the girls or a representative and we were rather surprised to read the article in Cosmopolitan. Ernie, the managing director, was represented as being rather callous, but no one believed the woman's injuries to be as severe as they were portrayed in the article.

I have traveled to Belize several times by myself and I have never had anything like this happen. We frequently have single women or women friends stay at the resort and we never have any problems. Certainly anything can happen in any place, but I am willing to say that none of our staff would do anything like this. Most of our staff members are long time employees with 3-6 years of service. It is hard for me to believe that we could employ a violent person for that long.

I am not trying to discount the incident or undermine the fear the girls faced, but nothing like this has ever happened before or since. Belizeans know that tourism is their main industry and they do not bite the hand that feeds. They are known for being warm, welcoming people.

As for posts being removed, to my knowledge no one from this office had any posts removed. The article is in a nationally known magazine, it isn't as if we can hide the story so why would we bother removing a few posts on this board?

Holly,

Thank you for responsibly reporting this information on behalf of Captain Morgan's. I have hesitated to comment on this article, although I did read it several weeks ago.

At this time, I'd like to offer just a general opinion about the slant of the article, as I cannot speak to the validity of the content and would not ever attempt to discount the brutality of the crime if it did infact occur.

I felt that Cosmopolitan magazine resorted to sensationalism and slander in an effort to exploit the resort's association with the successful show "Temptation Island". This article was definitely not about informative journalism; seldom do you see a piece that names names and makes such blatent references without any verifiable substance.

If the article was going to be written about Ambergris Caye, it should have taken a more objective view. If the journalist was seeking to do a general piece on safety in third world travel, then mention could have been made to this incident in a much more responsible matter.

Like I said, I appreciate Holly's contribution regarding facts surrounding this incident. As far as Cosmo's "exclusive interview" with the assault victim, I think they did their readers a terrible injustice by publishing crass sensationalism, rather than researched, documented, verified, objective reporting.

I think I just may go write Cosmo a letter now.....

I'd like to see this article, anyone want to mail it to me or OCR it and send i'd appreciate it.

marty@casado.net
marty casado
910 w. 16th
eugene, OR 97402

Hey Marty,
Long time no speak...lol How was your trip??? WHERE IS YOUR TRIP REPORT???

I have the article and can snail mail it to ya since I don't know how to do anything else. (Would Kinkos know the OCR way?? Let me know or it will be in the mail tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Hope

[This message has been edited by denverdan (edited 08-07-2001).]

Hi Hope, snail mail would be great! thanks a bunch!

here's a brief trip report....

lots of parasailing rides, a few days at the caves branch, rapelled off 300 ft cliff, dives like crazy every other day, the whole family is certified now except my son, who got an ear infection halfway thru the class before we left and could not go deep... but the rest ofus had a bang up time trying to see all the spots on the back of an Amigos del Mar t-shirt... didn't go to the atolls this trip. next time for sure...

stayed at carib villas, casa tortuga (the palace), and banana beach. love all those places...

great time up at rocky point with Landy, (Orlando Garrido, artiste extraordinaire), played a little volleyball and football, watched just born crocodiles (ssshhh) right out of the eggs, had a lot of GREAT meals, a nice time at the 5th anniv of Capricorn, took a golf cart ride north one day as far as we could go...

snorkled with Alfonso, of course.

had a great lunch with Daniel Nunez and his family, went to Altun Ha and all over the Belize River, went to Belmopan, Belize City, Hattiesville, Belize Zoo, Blue Hole Nat'l Park....

fun fun fun....

some of the pictures, not all yet, are at: //AmbergrisCaye.com/pages/photos/335.html

thru //AmbergrisCaye.com/pages/photos/393.html

more to come there....

Thanks, Holly, for responding. I know how "journalism" is, and wanted to hear what the article did not say. There is no way that any of us can know what really happened, but I am glad that you did respond. It just seemed odd that no one was talking!

AND MARTY! It sounds like you had a lot more fun on AC that I did! No fair. You could have at least come and helped arrange furniture and set up beds. About the Cosmo article... I'll run it by tomorrow when I'm in town. Oh! And I'll leave the whole magazine so you can take the "Sex Survey"! And then you could read the article "Make Him Crazy For You" -- oops, well you might want to skip that one.

Kathy