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A former Florida State University co-ed used the services of Discover Excursions of Seville and shared her abhorrent experience with NBC’s Today with Megyn Kelly. The co-ed, Gabrielle Vega alleges she was drugged and raped by the tour guide while on an excursion to Morocco.
This is not a story about Seville, nor is it a story about Morocco, Spain, or Portugal - all locales worthy of a place on one’s bucket list. It is a tale of the use of “date rape” drugs on an unsuspecting tourist.
It is a cautionary tale about a charismatic tour guide in Seville who apparently takes advantage of foreign tourists while they are under his care/supervision while visiting Morocco or Portugal. And our advice to stay clear of Discover Tours of Seville.
The full 16 minute interview is provided below. In a nutshell, Vega, taking advantage of her semester abroad with Florida State in Valencia, signed up for a quick jaunt to Morocco ( a four hour trip by bus/ferry) over a weekend with classmates. The tour was proceeding as advertised, with one exception. The tour guide, one Manuel Blanco Vela (aka Manu White) instructed the small group of co-eds that they should not leave their hotel their last evening there, for safety reasons and they could all eat dinner together. The ladies, did as instructed, and ate at the hotel.
Vega tells her story:
We reached out for additional first person accounts and advice from those with knowledge of Discover Excursions. We were told by a US student studying abroad that Blanco Vela was very forward with co-eds while on tours. And while this co-ed had not been sexually assaulted by Blanco Vela, she did note that during a “Sangria Cruise” in Lagos, Portugal that Blanco Vela was spiking the sangria with vodka to make it more potent and was repeatedly filling glasses, well before they were emptied.
A separate co-ed, who was scheduled to travel to Lagos, Portugal the weekend of 14-15 April, after the airing of the Today Show segment noted the company canceled the trip due to “weather.” A look at the weather report for those days showed light rain and partly cloudy - certainly not weather that would warrant a cancellation.
Indicative of one hunkering down.
Basic Travel Safety - Seville and beyond
We reached out to additional university students in Spain. In this case, to a dual-citizen student (US-Spanish) who was born and raised in Spain, about visiting Morocco and Seville and what advice they might have for a US university student visiting Spain as part of their semester abroad.
Their advice, you will note, is applicable to all travelers, regardless of locale.
- Buddy rule - never travel/drink alone
- Designated driver if driving, and when a member of the group might be in a position to make poor decisions, rally and leave.
- Drinking - stick to beverages which are opened in front of you
- Travel to Morocco, travel with a larger group
- In an emergency call 112 - Country wide emergency number (Emergency service is available in Spanish, English, German and French.
The Spanish Tourism Ministry provides the following advice.
- In general terms, Spain is one of the safest countries in Europe.
- As in any country, there are some basic safety guidelines…
- We recommend avoiding isolated or badly lit places, and street gambling. It’s a good idea to carry only the money you need for each outing. Be alert in crowded places, such as public transport or department stores. In public parks and other places used for leisure, don’t leave objects such as mobile phones or cameras unattended.
Contact with Discover Excursions
We contacted Discover Excursions via their website for comment. While their website automatically acknowledge receipt of our inquiry, no response was received. Calls to the phone number associated with Discover Excursions went unanswered. A call went out on various social networks, Twitter and Facebook, for input from any who had used Discover Excursions services. We were to subsequently learn that the phone number for Discover Excursions was Blanco Vela’s mobile phone. We also learned that the company was removing it’s social media foot print.
A visit to their Facebook page resulted in “content isn’t available now” result.
We learned from a foreign co-ed who had used Discover Excursions services that the Instagram Page for Blanco Vela was changed and then removed from visibility. Blanco Vela was shutting down all the social network photos. Though an ample supply of photos and videos of what appeared to be university aged students having a good time in Morocco and Portugal abound throughout the internet.
NBC TODAY SHOW Megyn Kelly interview with Gabrielle Vega and others
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